Norway Now Has More Electric Than Gas Cars, What We Can Learn From Them

Norway's early move isn't without problems, but we can learn from them, resulting in far more successful subsequent efforts.

The Scandinavian countries are aggressively green, and Norway recently announced that they have more registered electric vehicles than gas-powered vehicles. They now become a showcase for what happens when electric vehicles become more common, making them a great source of information on how best to make this transition when most of the other countries eventually get to where Norway is.

Let’s look at some of the things this transition will entail.

Transitioning A Country From Gas To Electric

Once a country breaches the kind of mix Norway has, a lot of existing petrochemical infrastructure will become obsolete. Gas stations will begin to struggle and then fail due to a lack of customers, and each gas station will present a clean-up problem for gas storage. You won’t need as many refineries, and oil and gas transport needs will also decline.

These refineries and gas depots must be dismantled and the ground underneath them cleaned. In addition, what about the various transport vehicles, from trains to trucks to ships? They are hard to repurpose due to the nature of the material they carry, yet disposing of them will also create environmental problems because they are contaminated with what they carry.

Electric Vehicle charging and ranges differ significantly from what gas stations typically provide. Just converting gas stations to electric charging stations may not work because, for a time, you’ll need both. Placing fast charging stations tends to favor different configurations than gas stations required. For instance, if we move, as is being considered, to wireless charging, then putting wireless chargers in parking lots would make more sense than putting them into a gas station-like configuration, and we are even looking at roads that will charge cars as they drive which would upend the entire process. 

Electric cars are serviced differently than gas cars. They don’t need tune-ups or oil changes, and their software updates are done remotely now. However, given that dealerships tend to partially live off their service bays, this pivot may result in more mobile electric car mechanics than fixed service shops since the work done on electric cars doesn’t require the kind of shop a gas car requires.

All of these things are achievable, but the first countries to attempt this will be plowing the field for the others, and it would be prudent to watch for the best practices and mistakes that the early adopters are making to better optimize subsequent efforts.

Sadly, countries don’t often learn from each other, but it would be prudent to learn from Norway this time.

The Eventual Benefits

Thanks to the EV revolution, Norway has become a far more beautiful country, which showcases that it is worth the effort to get to where Norway is and where they are going. While their effort required substantial economic incentives, it has been a massive success, and they already have 5,600 EV chargers in place. They are about the size of New Mexico, which currently has around 750 EV chargers and 9,932 electric vehicles (Norway has 754K electric vehicles by comparison).

In Norway, taxis, shuttles, and even boats and ferries are electric. I expect they even have some electric snowmobiles. And, of course, they have electric bikes and scooters, but given the weather there (it gets freezing and icy), it is clear their citizens have adapted better than I ever will to the cold.

In short, however, it is a better place to live, thanks to this EV pivot.

Wrapping Up:

Norway is an early mover toward fully electric vehicles, and as a result, it will be a great source for every following country, including the US, on what to do and what to avoid when making this transition. Think of Norway as a successful test case that can be used to reduce the costs and increase the success of every subsequent country planning on eliminating petrochemical contamination.

It is far cheaper to learn from the actions of others rather than from experience. We’ll see how many countries learn from Norway and how many learn by repeating now avoidable mistakes. Oh, and people are constantly saying that electric cars don’t work in the cold; Norway is an example that they work just fine. (I’ve had three, and they are far more surer-footed than gas cars in the snow, but they also need snow tires.)

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst covering automotive technology and battery developments at Torque News. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia, and follow his articles on Forbes, on X, and LinkedIn.