OLSO: While tourists explore Oslo’s history in the grounds of the centuries-old Akershus fortress, below their feet is a harbinger of the city’s future.
Here in the catacombs sit scores of Teslas, Nissan Leafs and BMW i3s, plugged into the charging points of the world’s largest public garage for electric cars. Walter Mulling is on his first visit to the garage, and is excited about the prospect of parking and charging his electric VW Golf for free. “We are in the future,” he says.
Norway is the undisputed world leader on electric cars, run almost exclusively off the nation’s copious hydropower resource. Nearly a third of all new cars sold in the country this year will be a plug-in model – either fully electric or a hybrid and experts expect that share to rise to as much as 40% next year. The capital is a glimpse of what’s in store for the UK, where electric vehicles are nearing just 2% of new car sales but registrations are growing at a fast pace, up 38% this year so far. In Oslo, the streets are filled with silent, gliding cars, from large ones such as the Tesla X to smaller models such as the Renault Zoe. For the drivers of these cars, the motivation is simple they just make financial sense. Norway’s lead on electric cars has been driven by the government backing them with a wide range of generous incentives and perks, as a way of meeting its climate change ambitions. Buyers do not pay import tax and VAT on plug-in cars, shaving thousands of pounds off the upfront cost. Running costs are lower because electricity is cheaper than petrol and diesel, while road tax is reduced and will drop to zero next year.
