Norway new car sales in November

battery electric vehicles: 73.8% market share
plug in hybrids: 17.4%
non-rechargeable hybrids 3.8%
diesel : 2.7%
gasoline cars : 2.3%

Norway is almost at the point where manufacturers will stop shipping diesel and gasoline cars to dealers in the country,

You can apparently do an epic tour of Norway by car in just 1500 miles.

Quote: rxwine

You can apparently do an epic tour of Norway by car in just 1500 miles.

Norway wouldn't be able to do this conversion if it wasn't for the decent rail network, and the other forms of transportation in the cities (like trams and bicycles).

Quote: Pacomartin

battery electric vehicles: 73.8% market share
plug in hybrids: 17.4%
non-rechargeable hybrids 3.8%
diesel : 2.7%
gasoline cars : 2.3%

Norway is almost at the point where manufacturers will stop shipping diesel and gasoline cars to dealers in the country,

The average Norwegian who owns a car drives it just about half as far per year as Americans do on average. They don't need gas cars. I used to get first-time visitors from Europe in my taxi they all had one thing in common. They were always stunned at the size of the United States. Going from New York to Chicago is just a drive to us. To a European it's a major trip through six different countries.

Quote: Evenbob

Going from New York to Chicago is just a drive to us. To a European it's a major trip through six different countries.

JFK ORD 740 mi
JFK ATL 760 mi

Oslo is closer to London than Rome
LHR OSL 750 mi London to Oslo Norway
LHR FCO 899 mi London to Rome Italy

Oslo is closer to San Franciso than London (169 miles)
SFO OSL 5,196 mi
SFO LHR 5,367 mi

"Government policy is a key. The speed of the transition correlates closely with government policy and incentives for purchasers. In Norway, the secret to accelerate uptake of EVs is to make them cheap enough. Norway lowered taxes in EVs to keep the price down, and even exempted road tolls as an extra incentive."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianpalmer/2021/06/19/why-norway-leads-in-evs-and-the-role-played-by-cheap-renewable-electricity/?sh=5cc36d78275f

They also have cheap, renewable electricity. We don't have as much of that--a large portion of our renewables depend on the sun or the wind (too much or too little, the turbines don't turn). That makes them less reliable than hydro.

Quote: RonC

In Norway, the secret to accelerate uptake of EVs is to make them cheap enough.

Vehicles are actually very expensive in Norway (average Transaction price is ~$62,000 while it is $45,000 at present in the US). There is no domestic industry to protect as Norway is a small country with population just over 5 million. So taxes on imported gasoline cars are super high, and EVs were exempted from those taxes.

But you are correct that gasoline is almost $8 a gallon, while electricity is similar to the US average price.

A lot of it has to do with achieving a critical mass. Very few people in the United States would even consider heating their home with coal even though the price is very low. With only 5% of new vehicles sold in Norway in November having pure internal combustion engines (gasoline and diesel) most people don't even think about it anymore.

Quote: Pacomartin

Vehicles are actually very expensive in Norway (average Transaction price is ~$62,000 while it is $45,000 at present in the US). There is no domestic industry to protect as Norway is a small country with population just over 5 million. So taxes on imported gasoline cars are super high, and EVs were exempted from those taxes.

But you are correct that gasoline is almost $8 a gallon, while electricity is similar to the US average price.

A lot of it has to do with achieving a critical mass. Very few people in the United States would even consider heating their home with coal even though the price is very low. With only 5% of new vehicles sold in Norway in November having pure internal combustion engines (gasoline and diesel) most people don't even think about it anymore.

Cars overall are expensive, but they have made changes to taxes that favor EVs...

"The country has strong taxes on fossil-fuel-powered vehicles that represent their cost to the environment and public health.

Within that marketplace, it makes electric vehicles more competitive, and the local EV market has grown tremendously, with new EV models being available."

https://electrek.co/2021/08/16/norway-glimps-future-electric-cars-make-gas-powered-car-sales-vanish/

The bulk of Norway's power is from dams. They still need to import power on a regular basis from Sweden when their 'green' power is unable to generate enough power because of fluctuating water levels and weather conditions. Most of Sweden's power is nuclear. Neither nuclear nor hydro is considered green in California. Wind and solar are a small and undependable part of the domestic production in Norway.

Quote: kenarman

Neither nuclear nor hydro is considered green in California. Wind and solar are a small and undependable part of the domestic production in Norway.

You are correct that, conventional hydro is not considered "renewable energy" in California.

The problem with Solar and Wind is not that they cannot generate power, it is that they are not as reliable around the clock and in all weather conditions as natural gas or nuclear. So California, like most states primarily generates electricity with natural gas.

2020 Generation California ------- Capacity factor
48.3% Natural Gas 26.7%
14.2% Solar PV 24.3%
9.4% Large Hydro 16.7%
8.5% Nuclear 77.7%
7.2% Wind 26.2%
5.9% Geothermal 47.8%
3.0% Biomass 51.0%
1.8% Small Hydro 22.5%
1.2% Solar Thermal 20.8%
0.2% Coal 65.8%
0.1% Petroleum Coke 63.0%
0.1% Waste Heat 41.1%
0.0% Oil 1.0%

"Peakers" or natural gas plants that operate in times peak demand are still important in California. Because "peakers" are expensive to operate, the capacity factor of natural gas plants is relatively low (about the same as solar and wind).

"Peaker" plants tend to be fairly small and are often located in disadvantaged neighborhoods. They are often very old.

The Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015 (Senate Bill 350) established clean energy, clean air, and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals, including reducing GHG to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. It gradually requires more and more renewable sources of electricity for electricity both generated in California and imported from other states or Mexico and Canada.

The NRC issues operating licenses for nuclear reactors for 40 years, but you can apply for extensions in 20 year periods, Not enough time has passed for anyone to apply for a second 20 year extension.

The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plan (the last active nuclear plant in CA) has had it's application for a 20 year renewal withdrawn, so the reactors will be shut down in 2024 and 2025. The state government has so severely restricted the rules by which nuclear power can be used, that the utility feels that it can' be operated profitability.

The Palo Verde Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located near Tonopah, Arizona, in western Arizona. As of 2013, the Palo Verde Generating Station is the largest power plant in the United States by net generation. Its average electric power production is about 3.3 gigawatts (GW), and this power serves about four million people. A minority share of the plant is owned by , Southern California Edison (15.8%), the Southern California Public Power Authority (5.9%), and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (5.7%). On April 21, 2011, the NRC renewed the operating licenses for Palo Verde's three reactors, extending their service lives from forty to sixty years. The reactors were comissioned on.
Unit 1: 28 January 1986 (35 years ago)
Unit 2: 19 September 1986 (35 years ago)
Unit 3: 8 January 1988 (33 years ago)

Palo Verde Generating Station, Diablo Canyon and Columbia Generating Station (10 miles north of Richland, Washington) are the last three commercial nuclear generating plants in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC).

The population near Columbia nuclear power plant is (496,365|50 miles; 1,004,735|100 miles; 2,823,127 | 150 miles), so the electricity from the 1216 MW generator is consumed locally. Columbia nuclear power plant is 100 miles from the northern terminus of the Pacific High voltage DC intertie. So it is only a very minor factor for electricity imported to Callifornia.

Nuclear generated electricity has zero emissions. A small, but vocal group in California wants the state to consider nuclear energy a renewable resource so that electricity can be imported from Palo Verde for at least the operating life of the reactors. (2046-48) Opponents fear that such an exemption will allow for new mini-reactors to be imported into the state.

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are defined as nuclear reactors generally 300 MWe equivalent or less, designed with modular technology using module factory fabrication, pursuing economies of series production and short construction times. This definition, from the World Nuclear Association, is closely based on those from the IAEA and the US Nuclear Energy Institute. Hundreds of smaller power reactors have been built for naval use (up to 190 MW thermal). A 300 MW generator might support the needs of a population of 300,000 to 600,000.

The reactors at Diablo Canyon are 1138 and 1118 MW.

Small modular reactors will either be deliverable by truck, train or ship. One advantage of ship delivery is that it would create jobs at shipyards and the delivery ships could be submerged by design in shallow water at the final location to provide water for cooling.

Some states have extremely high electric rates (cents per kWh as of September 2021).
Hawaii 34.30 (Coal and natural gas are not options so expensive petroleum is traditionally used for generation)
Massachusetts 23.48
California 23.44
Rhode Island 23.35
Alaska 23.21
Connecticut 22.42
New York 20.46
U.S. Total 14.19

The high rates in California stand out since the rest of the Western Interconnect has such low prices for electricity (all but NM are lower than the national average)
New Mexico 14.64
Colorado 13.87
Arizona 12.75
Wyoming 12.05
Idaho 10.42
Montana 11.84
Oregon 11.67
Nevada 11.22
Utah 10.98
Washington 10.40