key quote: “Behavioral barriers to adoption are much less of an issue than originally thought. When the economics are good, people buy EVs in large numbers.” - ThreadSky

jaapburger.eu • 92 days ago

key quote: “Behavioral barriers to adoption are much less of an issue than originally thought. When the economics are good, people buy EVs in large numbers.”

Reposted from Colin McKerracher

Great piece on Norway's EV journey from my colleague Kari Lundgren

www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Comments

chrismooiweer.bsky.social•92 days ago

It seems like there was a bit of a behavioral issue at first. People kept a ICE backup: “Norwegian households initially tended to hold onto fossil fuel cars after buying a battery-powered model, but now almost two-thirds that own an EV don’t have a combustion engine back-up”

joshdoug.bsky.social•92 days ago

Fairly reasonable behaviour considering that early EVs had shorter range, slower charging, and a much more spotty charging network, makes sense that with more recent EVs and a much improved charging network along with more widespread experience that behaviour has changed.

chrismooiweer.bsky.social•92 days ago

Good point 👍

jaapburger.eu•92 days ago

and:

“There’s nothing in Norwegians’ mindset that has helped make this happen.” [said Bu, general secretary of Norway's EV association]

But money has. The country, which isn’t part of the EU, has foregone billions in tax revenue, which in Norway’s case can be offset with fossil fuel income."

jaapburger.eu•92 days ago

An interesting photo with the section on end-of-life vehicles / re-use and recycling of EV batteries shows that this is also still a problem of small numbers, with - as the photo shows - European trade with specialist companies trying to achieve sufficient scale for viable re-use/recycling.

jaapburger.eu•92 days ago

"Oslo grid operator Elvia has to reinforce and expand electricity networks to accommodate demand, often with separate stations and transformers to serve isolated areas. But the overall strain is manageable as cars and buses often charge at non-peak times, according to spokesman Morten Schau."

arfishbone.bsky.social•92 days ago

To the extent there is a behavioral issue I think it’s mostly uncertainty/conservatism around new technology - will I be able to figure this out / is it too much hassle? And if not then I have my old ice to fall back on. I hear this a lot from people looking to go ev for the first time

jaapburger.eu•92 days ago

Exactly - and this is also described in the article, the first Norwegians to switch to EVs also kept their ICE as part of the 2/3 cars in the household. But it's more of a temporary thing.

joshdoug.bsky.social•92 days ago

There's a behavioural issue to an extent, but early adopters in Norway were getting EVs which are much less capable than ones being sold now with a network that was slower, less reliable, and with much less coverage. They probably did need a backup more often.

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