FJORD TRANSIT

WE TAKE HYUNDAI’S NEW IONIQ 5 THROUGH NORWAY TO EXPERIENCE EV MOBILITY THE WAY IT SHOULD BE DONE

- DANIEL GARDNER

FRIGID RAIN IS pounding the granite cobblestones of Aker Brygge on a dreary Oslo Friday morning and the worsening conditions remind me why I left the northern hemisphere in search of warmer climes many years ago. But the wandering nostalgic train of thought is derailed by the arrival of photographer Adam. He’s alighting one of the 139-metre Basto Electric ferries that crisscross the Oslo Fjord, powered by a 4.3MWh (yes – megawatt) battery and dock with robotic fast chargers at either end of their passage. If this was Sydney Harbour, he’d be arriving on a floating antique powered by a pair of 14-litre MTU diesels that chug nearly four litres of dinosaur juice every minute. But this isn’t Australia, this is the world’s leading nation for transport electrification – Norway.

I’m here to explore how a rugged but beautiful fringe of Scandinavian rock home to 5.5 million became the undisputed champion of the electric car with 31 OEMs offering at least one electric model, more than 400,000 EVs rolling on Norwegian roads and a staggering 76 percent of new-car sales representing the pure electric party. If Australia had achieved the same number per capita there would be nearly 2 million EVs Down Under but, as it stands, the figure is closer to 20,000 and a meagre 0.6 percent of registrations are for battery-powered models. More critical than how Norway achieved it though, is if the herculean feat is repeatable by other nations including Australia...