Go to Oslo, which I did once with Nissan, purveyor of an electrified vehicle named after tree foliage, and, if you don’t get killed (a) because you, British tourist from a country that drives on the ‘right’ side of the road, forgot to look left instead of right when stepping off the kerb and (b) because you didn’t hear one coming, you’ll notice that electric vehicles (henceforth EVs) are rather common thereabouts. Very common. As in special lanes, special parking, free parking, free charging, home electricity rebates, free home wall chargers, an annual letter of gratitude from the Minister of Oil Consumption Reduction, subsidies for home solar farms, wind farms, hydroelectric power projects. Etc. OK, I kid a bit.
However, as this article, written exclusively for just-auto by Norwegian writer and native Jorn Madslien details, in global terms, Norway enjoys by far the highest penetration of electric vehicles in its car market. There are more than 100,000 electric cars on the road in this sparsely populated country of just 5.2m people. By comparison there are merely 600,000 EVs in China and less than 500,000 in the US. In September, 28% of new car registrations in Norway were electric (BEVs and plug-in hybrids combined), with sales having risen 33% since the start of the year. By comparison, in Europe as a whole, EVs make up less than 1% of new car sales. And all this in a country which grows its own oil and gas. It’s a good yarn with a bit of history – anyone remember THINK!? – and a look at the future including perhaps slightly fewer incentives as an icy little country long dependent on fossil fuel exports contemplates its future. Pull up a coffee and enjoy.
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Inevitably, there was other electrified vehicle news this week. Mercedes announced an electric Vito van, sadly not inviting us to the press event (I had a lot of fun pretending to be a fishmonger with a Nissan e-NV200 Somewhere in Europe a few years ago). Skoda said it would produce pure electric models at Mlada Boleslav from 2019, as well as manufacture electrical components for plug-in hybrids. “Skoda’s future will be electric,” sez the CEO. “By 2025, we plan to offer five purely electrically powered models in various segments.” E-Up and e-Golf at lower price points, maybe? Joint venture Hitachi Automotive Electric Motor Systems plans to produce EV drive motors in China’s Guangdong province by 2020 and the latest UK government budget included spending on the recharging network. With Tesla’s announcement it will launch an electric truck (will they make deadline, money?) it was time to update our QUBE research data too.
Hungary’s Investment Agency said highly competitive tax rates continue to attract automotive manufacturing to the country as the centrally located countries of central and eastern Europe (CEE) jockey for access to labour and five suppliers were fined EUR34m (US$40m) for breaching European Union (EU) antitrust rules.
Our future model plan predictions continued with not one but two articles on Honda plus a look into Kia’s Soul.
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Have a nice weekend.
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By GlobalDataGraeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
