In Oslo, the bus lanes on the highways are only accidentally available to EVs currently.

They were open for years as a means to foster EV adoption. But once sales took off, the local government tightened the screws — you needed an EV and also at least two people in the car to get access to the bus lane.

But! When they printed the new signs, somehow a double negative slipped through, and the text on the (many) signs said that you could only use the bus lane if you were driving alone in an EV. Obviously not the intent.

But currently, all the signs have the double negative condition crossed out, and all EVs continue to be able to use the bus lanes.

>After driving an EV for a few thousand miles, ive realized they are so superior to ICE for my use case

I vastly prefer my low-ish end EV (Hyundai Kona) to every ICE vehicle I've ever driven. Even if I wasn't saving ~$100/month in fuel costs, and even if I the environmental effects were a complete wash, I don't think I'd ever buy an ICE again.

I think the only reason I'd ever go to an ICE vehicle is if I needed something larger. Right now, if you need a "family transport" vehicle with space for adults, kids, luggage, etc, the EV world is pretty limited. I had high hopes for the VW Buzz, but it's total range is a bit borderline for me, although I still need to calculate out how it would compare for my typical long distance drive. The Kona has greater range, but a much slower max charge rate, and it might turn out that those balance each other out, and the Kona has been fine for the 10 hour road trips I've done so far.

Agreedish. In the US I don’t think I’d support higher taxes for non EVs because cars are unfortunately a necessity here and EVs are (mostly artificially through govt policy) expensive.

But yes to your point of ICE cars suck. They’re so much more impressive engineering than EVs but that complexity is also their downfall imo.

They're usually combo bus/taxi lanes. Do you think it doesn't make sense because busses should still be prioritized over private vehicles?

I wonder. Are people who aren't well off able to afford cars if nearly all cars sold are EV?

From experience living in southern America you will get ridiculed, pummelled to the side of the road, and blinded by F350s and Silverados. And constantly told it's your fault for having a car they couldn't see over their 8 ft hood.

The range will be like 80 miles? Many people I grew up with had jobs 40-60 miles away, and those places still don't have charging stations.

There's a reason a used Nissan Leaf is so cheap. In EVs, once the battery is done, the car is done, as replacing the battery is expensive. The more the battery is used, like any battery, the less capacity it has, the faster it drains, the lower your mile range.

1) new Evs are still more expensive than new gas cars 2) in some states, the registration fees are higher (+$225 in Washington State) 3) if it's your only car it may be a bit limiting, unless you are willing to rent a gas car on occasion.

Living in Las Vegas, a Leaf was the perfect daily driver. The whole valley isn't big enough to ever go beyond the range in a single day no matter how many errands or kid soccer games. Plus you could remotely turn on the A/C which is a game changer in the desert. We also had a Land Rover Discovery (LR3) for when we wanted to drive to LA or Utah or whatever else.

When you see stuff like this, its kinda off-putting. Better to wait till the teething problems are over : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/when-a-leaf-is-a-brick...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/leaf-nissan-owners-leg...

The Nissan Leaf is not that practical. There's a reason why SUVs are the most popular type of car in the US.

Relatedly… a friend is looking for a power inverter for an otherwise-fine 2015 Leaf. Anyone here know where to source one?

Social signaling is important. Whether you like the game or not.

To not: In Europe, social signaling works in favor of biking… but only among a certain type of people (let’s say vegetarians). But it’s a circle of friends really hard to maintain because they also veto you if you take any non-ecologic decision.

So, long story short, social status signaling cannot be cancelled by ecologist status signaling. Seems like we’d have to appease tensions on both sides…

At least they're using the oil exports to break their own dependence on it. They'd be even more foolish to double down on it.

I'd love an EV, but no suitable vehicle yet exists in the market that can match the capability I have (and routinely use) now.

High clearance 4x4, 1200km range, ability to seat 4 reasonably comfortably, 700kg payload, 800mm fording depth, priced under $80k USD. Table stakes specs for a diesel 4WD but the electric market isn't there yet.

used leaf bolt or model 3

Norway has put like 30 years of efforts into building up impressive electric transmission and EV-charging infrastructure. Check out e.g. these articles:

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/03/08/how-norway-became-the-w...

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/...

Also note that the amount of habitable land in Norway is rather limited, so you don't get to drive hundreds of miles over flat highway-friendly terrain, like e.g. in the US Midwest.

Due to the recent shifts in the economy, last year was a bit of a downer in terms of new cars sold[1], about 127000. In comparison 2021-2022 had roughly the same number of new cars sold[2], about 175000. The number of used cars sold was roughly the same across 2021-2023.

In 2023 roughly 20% of cars sold were new cars. In 2021-2022 roughly 25% of cars sold were new cars.

Roughly 50% of new cars in 2020 were BEVs. In 2023 that number was 82%. So far[3] in 2024 it's almost 87%.

[1]: https://ofv.no/bilsalget/bilsalget-i-desember-2023

[2]: https://ofv.no/bilsalget/bilsalget-i-desember_2022

[3]: https://ofv.no/bilsalget/bilsalget-i-august-2024

Who needs a garage for charging? I’ve got a 7kWh charger on my driveway but no garage. Over the road there are chargers on the street lamps. Where I live I’ve even seen charger cables run inside gullies under pavements for people with no driveways.

Level 2 chargers are super common on a lot of houses, and there are plenty of other options around most towns and roads.

I tend to see mostly new cars, no clue what the breakdown is, though.

Alternatively you could look at it as pricing in previously overlooked externalities of ICE vehicles.

Look at some of the research on the health costs of ICE emissions. Even before you try to assess the cost to the local and global environment you end up with annual death rates in the hundreds of thousands and many billions of dollars annually in medical expenses and quality of life reduction. A tax on pollution would be the best way to handle this since you could pour the money raised into healthcare and environmental remediation.

https://theicct.org/new-study-quantifies-the-global-health-i...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4243514/

The market distortion is the price of the combustion vehicle not including the costs of what comes out of the tailpipe.

Even without taxes, I'm pretty sure that for most use cases, a good electric vehicle will cost a lot less in the long term when you factor in maintenance in addition to 'fuel' costs.

Road noise isn't much better (perhaps even slightly worse, they're heavy). B

But in the local roads with 40 km/h (30 mph) or less, then yeah it's quite noticeable when an ICE comes along. The EVs you hardly hear.

However, the 80 km/h (50 mph) roads make a lot of noise, so you'll hear them far away.

So overall I'd say not really.

Not a Norwegian, but my perception is that electric vehicles might not alter the 'average' noise, but they do change the peak/annoying noise levels. An (approximately) continuous background sound of traffic is far more tolerable than revving ICE engines, backfiring etc.