I think the first time I saw a Tesla was in Hong Kong a couple of months ago. It took me a second look and some mental rummaging to work out what it was. Oslo swarms with them. There, one in three new cars plugs into a wall socket.
Norway’s government has announced plans to be carbon-neutral by 2030. What's more surprising is that they seem to be serious about it. True, part of the plan is to offset some emissions by paying other countries to plant trees – but dealing with emissions at home is part of the picture, too. So they have another target: no "fossil-car" sales by 2025.
Finding a viable, large-scale alternative to fossil fuels for cars, trucks, and boats is challenging. Biofuels seem like a good idea, but have their own issues: deforestation and displacement of food production, for a start. The main difficulty with electricity is storage. Until recently, batteries haven't been good enough to really compete – hence the petrol-electric hybrids that increasingly populate our taxi ranks.
Norway doesn't have a car industry, so in a technological sense, it takes what's produced elsewhere. What they have done is to institute a range of incentives to make electric vehicles more attractive to consumers. Sales tax on new electric cars is waived, as are annual registration fees. You don't pay tolls. You can use high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the motorway, park free of charge once you get into town – and recharge your battery for free while it's there. You can even use local ferries (you guessed it) free.
People might still be nervous about battery capacity constraints and recharging times in committing to electric – but if we're talking about the family's second car (the runabout or daily commuter), it's less of an issue. Several small electric cars are common on Norwegian roads – including the e-Golf, a version of VW's all-time bestseller. Tesla, meanwhile, has gone for the prestige end of the market.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that Norwegians are on the whole relatively affluent and proudly green. Buying a zero-emissions car appeals to many people's core values; environmental benefit, not economic prudence, is the reason most commonly stated for buying an electric car. But tilting the financial bottom line probably isn't the main reason for all those government incentives. For most people, getting something for free has an allure all of its own. Then there's the psychological irresistibility of limited supply: many of the subsidies will end once 50,000 electric vehicles have been sold ("get in while they last!"). By the time the subsidies come off, the market will have reached a tipping point and electric will be the new black. Shrewd.
Does this story have an underbelly? Of course. You might argue that the scheme subsidises the well-to-do who can afford a shiny new car in the first place. You might also wonder how the Norwegian state is paying for all of this. The answer: a healthy sovereign wealth fund built on ... oil revenue. That might seem hypocritical. But as a pragmatic way of achieving a result, it's pretty hard to argue with.