Live data from Hacker News

Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

bbc.co.uk

31–40 of 80 posts

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#31

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

It's telling that when Volvo made an electric car prototype (the C30 Electric), they gave it a separate ethanol heater to handle the Swedish weather conditions...

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#32
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To mitigate issues with cold weather, 2nd generation Nissan Leaf battery packs with the 'cold weather package' include a 'battery warmer' between banks. This is controlled via the BMS which was already monitoring temperature with some thermistors. It's a resistive element like that used in heated seats or an electric blanket. The Tesla battery is a liquid cooled battery and thus can be warmed via coolant that is heat…

I was also wondering about two things I've heard they have in northern climes called heated garages and engine block warmers[1]. I assume if one were charging a batter one could also divert some power to keep it warm. Lowered range aside one bonus of an electric car in cold climates is they'll probably start. [1] As a Californian these things frighten and confuse me.

> I assume if one were charging a batter one could also divert some power to keep it warm

The Tesla is always diverting power to keep the batteries warm in the winter. In fact, if you park it outdoors in freezing temperatures, and plug it in to an American single-phase 120V outlet using a long extension cord, all the power will go to keeping the batteries from freezing and it won't charge at all.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#33

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

Electrical cars will never be popular in Russia, at least in the most parts. You have to drive at -40 temperature; you have to drive 500-1000km in one day; and not only drive, but keep warm temperature inside for passengers (not every day, but your car must be able to do that sometimes). You don't have enough money to buy many cars for different tasks, gasoline is extremely cheap (compared to Europe) and not much people care about ecology. Electric cars just don't suited for that.

They might become popular in Moscow and other huge cities with warm climate, short distances and rich people.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#34

I was feeling all good for Norway, till I read this: > It helps that Norway is also the biggest oil producer in Western Europe and the world's third largest exporter of natural gas. Hmmm.... You know what would really help the environment, Norway? If you stopped drilling all that oil and gas. Your measly consumption of gas isn't the problem; your mega export of oil is.

A more nuanced and interesting discussion would be if putting the money made from selling oil into kick-starting the EV industry (through subsidies, etc) a net ecological plus or minus?

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#35
post #10

So basically it's incentives, inventives and incentives on top of incentives. Wouldn't call that love but hey whatever it's still a good result, right?

Those incentives didn't just happen. The Norwegians imposed them on themselves.

Any regulation is imposed by the people on itself in a democracy. When people complain about the internet provider in the US, they have imposed that to themselves too.

Anyway, the point is that electric car in Norway is not competing on equal footing. It is cool, don't get me wrong, but worthless as an indicator of things to come in other countries.

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#36
post #25

The oil age is ending in Norway. It's considered a fact of life. You all have heard of the petroleum fund. That money is going towards pensions. Of course it's easier to buy an electric car if you're used to thinkinf of the oil age that something that ends within your own working life.

> The oil age is ending in Norway.

With "oil age" you mean the use of oil, or its production?

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#38
post #25

The oil age is ending in Norway. It's considered a fact of life. You all have heard of the petroleum fund. That money is going towards pensions. Of course it's easier to buy an electric car if you're used to thinkinf of the oil age that something that ends within your own working life.

> The oil age is ending in Norway. With "oil age" you mean the use of oil, or its production?

Production. The North Sea reached "peak oil" some time ago.

Although there have been recent increases in production, the total output is much lower than it was around 2000.

http://www.crystolenergy.com/assessing-future-north-sea-oil-...

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#39

One very small part of the arctic circle. That title is appropriate once electric cars are popular in the northern regions of canada and russia, who are by far the largest occupiers of the arctic. Some data: It looks like the leaf's range is basically halved in cold weather. That, and the greater distances between everything in the true north, says to me that they are a long way from adoption. http://www.greencarrepo…

Electrical cars will never be popular in Russia, at least in the most parts. You have to drive at -40 temperature; you have to drive 500-1000km in one day; and not only drive, but keep warm temperature inside for passengers (not every day, but your car must be able to do that sometimes). You don't have enough money to buy many cars for different tasks, gasoline is extremely cheap (compared to Europe) and not much peo…

There are prototypes of electric cars that use aluminum batteries [1] with energy density similar to that of gasoline. As technology improves, that can be a viable option for extreme cold conditions.

[1] https://www.algemeiner.com/2014/06/17/israels-phinergy-tests...

Re: Why do they love electric cars in Norway?

#40
If you travel to Norway, you see they have sea, mountains, and water, which means very cheap electric energy.

Probably the only place in the world with similar cheap electric energy/person is Iceland.

When I was in Iceland I could not stop thinking about the electric cars possibilities there. I have not lived in Iceland in winter though, which certainly will have more problems.

Post reply on HN