Norway - EV

[chopper602]

Going to Norway in July (specifically Fefor Høifjellshotell - for powerweek - Ladies amateur Highland Games) and our local travel agent has put down an ID.4 as the hire car when we land. No problem with that, but what's the situation with charging? I know Norway has the highest take up of EVs in Europe, there will be plenty of chargers, but will I need a dedicated 'Smart' card for every different charger or is a contact-less credit/debit card sufficient ?

Also we're overnighting in Oslo, when we arrive and before we leave (flight times are not great!), anything that's a must see/do?

[Traffic]

I am a few hours south of Oslo in Sweden, but charging stations on all the main routes are prevalent and I highly doubt you will have an issue.

Get the app "Elton" and that shows all the chargers, where they, cost and even if they are in use in real time.

It's a totally different situation over here, light years ahead actually.

[Fourmotion]

We hired an electric car last year, a Mach-E (was expecting a Polestar), and used the Bilkraft app. Really easy to set up, and lets you know the We drove about 2000km over 8 days, and never struggled with charging, even in the remotest of places.

[MattyD803]

We had a week skiing in Hafjell last January and there were charging places EVERYWHERE, not to mention EVs. (We had a hybrid rav4, but an EV back home, so my eye was drawn to the sheer mind-blowing ratio out there)

It appeared that the Norwegians quite literally take the opportunity to charge up everywhere they stop (almost as a habit) and as a result, even our local convenient shop had a row of 6 or 8 chargers, not to mention the airbnb cabin we rented - However, they did generally appear to be mostly 3/7/22kW AC jobs, so I would ensure that you have the charging cable in the boot before you set off.

Sorry I can't help much on the Payment / App front, but I would suspect that it will be contactless or at least very simple - we found most if not all people spoke good English and most self service machines (parking etc) also had an English button.

Wonderful country - can't wait to return.

[gangzoom]

Personally I would skip Oslo and get north ASAP, its just another city. We drove from Leicester to Norway a couple of years ago for the summer holidays in our small battery X, no issues with charging or range in Norway - didn't spend more than 1hr in Oslo.

Make sure you go up Trollstigen if you get the chance, it's an awesome bit of road. The bridge over the Atlantic was cool, but the stretch of road just beyond is also fabulous to drive on. The speedlimit is pretty slow in Norway but if you see the donout tracks on various bits of road you can tell the locals more than 'enjoy' them!!!

Looking at the map its a 10hr round trip from where you are staying to Trollstigen, I would say personally it'll be 100% worth the effort to find a way to get to there for an overnight stop. It's not just the roads, the whole area is simply stunning, we will be going back again at somepoint.

Edited by gangzoom on Sunday 23 February 15:25

Edited by gangzoom on Sunday 23 February 15:27

[chopper602]

I'll round off this thread by saying we were blown away by the countryside, the views, the friendly people and the roads (less so by the cost of 'things'). The ID4 was great and the couple of charges we did went flawlessly. To top it all 22 year old daughter won the championship and came home with the Ladies World title !! It's not football or tennis, so the media aren't interested.



The trophy is a hand carved disc of wood

[boxedin]

chopper602 said:

To top it all 22 year old daughter won the championship and came home with the Ladies World title !! It's not football or tennis, so the media aren't interested.

The trophy is a hand carved disc of wood

Congrats; one for the 'Good News' Thread.

[Ken Figenus]

Going shortly - how do you manage the speed limits there. Just trundle along fully compliant or can you have a little fun if its a nice clear road? Hear all sorts of stories but might be a bit slow and dull to cover ground everywhere at just 50?

[chopper602]

Ken Figenus said:

Going shortly - how do you manage the speed limits there. Just trundle along fully compliant or can you have a little fun if its a nice clear road? Hear all sorts of stories but might be a bit slow and dull to cover ground everywhere at just 50?

TBH there weren't all that many places at 50, most of the single carriageways were 80, dual carriageways 110. Plenty of cameras around and I even saw a lone Police Speed trap near the airport. You need to be aware of the road tolls, I set my satnav to avoid them but still got invoiced for about £35 worth.

I can see why so many rally drivers come from Scandinavia though, come off the main roads and there are plenty of loose gravelly surfaces acting as 'B' roads, which was great (obvs hire cars are best/fastest). I don't remember seeing any potholes . . .

[gangzoom]

Ken Figenus said:

Going shortly - how do you manage the speed limits there. Just trundle along fully compliant or can you have a little fun if its a nice clear road? Hear all sorts of stories but might be a bit slow and dull to cover ground everywhere at just 50?

The local HGV drivers will do 80kmh around blind bends, the few locals who do speed will make you look very slow of you even attempt to keep up, so just relax and enjoy the scenery......

However if you go past the bridge over the Atlantic Ocean road the 10-20km of road beyond it is sublime, and before 6am there is no traffic so you can really have some fun