Norway has the largest oil reserves in Western Europe – about 0.9 billion tons were explored in 2015. It would seem that with such resources you can live and develop your state perfectly! But Norway has one of the highest taxes on the oil industry (over 50%), and the country's petrol and diesel are the most expensive of any European country I've been to.
It feels like about one in four cars in the country is electric or hybrid. It is clear that in Oslo “trains” more, somewhere in a village on the fjords, and even more so in polar cities, there are fewer of them, but on average, the statistics seem to be about the same. I haven't looked at the official statistics: it's easy to google if you want.
< p class="article-render__block article-render__block_unstyled" data-points="9">Even the ferries connecting the towns on different banks of the fjords in Norway are trying to be made electric. Previously, all ferries were diesel-powered, but now more and more electric power plants are being purchased, and within a couple of years the government plans to completely abandon the use of heavy fuel in the engines of ferries on the fjords, so as not to spoil the air.
Charging for electric vehicles in the country is even more than conventional gas stations with gasoline and diesel. To get people going electric, they're being offered good car ownership tax credits, cheaper charging costs, and, as a whip, ever-increasing fuel prices.
Charging for electric vehicles on the wall of a house in Bergen On average in Europe, they charge 120 rubles per liter of fuel. Of course, in Norway, the real incomes of the population are higher, but all the same, gasoline prices bite. And to fully charge an electric car costs 350-400 kroons, that is, two – two and a half thousand rubles. On this charge, Tesla can safely drive five thousand kilometers.
An ordinary car, even with a minimum consumption of six liters per hundred, will eat 30 liters for 500 kilometers, which will cost a Norwegian a little less than five thousand rubles. So it turns out exactly twice the savings!
Provides Norway generates almost all of its electricity from hydroelectric power plants, and sends most of its produced oil for sale to the EU countries. For the proceeds, it provides citizens with a good social package, free medicine and other useful things, and the rest is invested in the development of renewable energy sources and the further transition of all vehicles in the country to electric traction.
Why are they doing this? Probably a rhetorical question. To make people live comfortably and safely, so that the air is clean, so that water can be drunk from any river. It seems to be worthy goals…
At the same time, used cars are incredibly cheap in Norway. Read here and see for yourself