Manufacturing Biz #2 - Magazine - Page 26
Norway: Electric Vehicle paradise?
M
y wife and I recently had a
two-week holiday in Norway.
We travelled most of the
country including Oslo and Bergen in
the south, Trondheim in the centre up
to Bodo and Lofoten Islands in the Artic
Circle. We travelled by Expressboat (65
kph catamaran!), the slower but more
luxurious Hurtigruten ship, and by train.
Our longest train journey was 10 hours
with breathtaking scenery to Bodo.
Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim all had high
EV populations including most taxi’s, all
buses with Tesla appearing to be the most
popular EV for private drivers. I only saw a
small handful of eHGVs and a few eVans,
but did see eBoats operating from Oslo
and Flåm. Outside the cities, the take-up of
EVs seemed much lower.
On the beautiful Lofoten Islands, we
hired a car to travel from our base, a
fisherman’s cottage in Solsvær, to the
fascinating Viking Museum at Borg and
other attractions on the islands. Of course,
I insisted on hiring an EV and Avis was
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able to offer a Polestar 2. My research
on Google Maps showed that there were
several rapid charging hubs in Solsvær so
was surprised that most hire vehicles were
petrol or hybrid.
The range of the Polestar 2 was more than
adequate for 3 days around the Lofoten
Islands, but we had to return the Polestar
to Avis more than 70% charged or would
pay a penalty to Avis. On the evening
before we left the islands, I went to find
the nearest rapid charger, a Shell Recharge
hub on the outskirts of Solsvær. When I
M A N U FA C T U R I N G B I Z M A G A Z I N E | A P R I L 2 0 2 4
arrived, no vehicles were charging at the
almost new Kempower 8 x satellite (6 @
200kW, 2 @ 150kW) installation. I plugged
in, scanned the QR code, inserted payment
details and the Polestar showed ‘Charging
Initializing’ …… but there it stayed.
I tried again with the same result, so I
called the Shell Recharge helpdesk. They
monitored me following the QR process
again and when it failed, they decided
to reboot the charger. All eight satellites
rebooted, and they took over 10 minutes
to come back up. I was joined by another
EV driver and when we both tried to start
charging, both of our Apps reported the
charging hub off-line!
We both moved on to a smaller ABB rapid
charging hub operated by a local CPO,
Eviny. That immediately accepted my
contactless payment, and I breathed a sigh
of relief when charging started! Then a
few minutes later it changed its mind and
stopped. I tried to restart with contactless
and the screen told me that I was not
authorised to charge. I tried the Eviny