like no other country on earth, with batteries powering 79.3 per cent of all new cars sold in 2022. But adoption rates have been slower in Finnmark, where just over half of cars sold last year were electric. In the darkness of Arctic winter, shoppers leave diesel station wagons idling in the parking lot as they stock up on groceries. Not everyone is convinced electric will be better.
The mandate to end sales of combustion engines is “stupid,” said Bjorn Floer, who drove his diesel Toyota HiAce home from his cottage, where he traps marten and hunts grouse. “You can drive this for 30 years,” he says, nodding to the car, a model known to last more than a million kilometres. “How long can you drive an electric? Eight years? Ten? I don’t know,” he said. A new electric vehicle is expensive, too, he said, not to mention the cost of installing a new charging system at home.
“You need to have charging stations. And I think that’s the most critical thing in terms of doing it properly,” Mr. Lunde said. He has now driven his Model S 120,000 kilometres, and has added a Model Y. Cold weather can double or even triple charging times, but most Norwegians charge at home – and some models now allow the driver to preheat the battery to speed its refill time.
It won’t work but the cold winters will take it’s toll, like it did in Germany but out winters are colder. This is what happens when a not-so-bright Swedish teen girl get the responsibility of energy politics. Turning the world against us 😔