Renting an EV in Norway
Norway is the ‘Electric Vehicle (EV) capital of Europe’. 85% of new car sales in Norway are electric, and the sale of petrol & diesel cars is scheduled to stop by 2025. We have long wanted to take a road trip round the Fjord area of Norway, and were fascinated to see the Norwegian EV scene first-hand.

So we started planning. We quickly rejected the idea of driving our Nissan Leaf via Denmark, which would have been 1,600 miles and 33 hours driving each way! So in mid-September 2023 we flew from Edinburgh to Bergen, where we had pre-booked a VW ID.3 from Hertz.
I had pre-planned the trip with the ID.3 in mind, having familiarised myself with its controls, range, charging requirements etc, so I was initially disappointed to be allocated a Volvo XC40, partly because I thought that the XC40 was petrol car. In fact this was a twin motor extended range electric version of the XC40 which wasn't yet available in the UK at that time. I quickly grew to really like it.

As we drove north out of Bergen, the roads quickly became pleasantly quiet, and the scenery superb. Our first day was one of our longest drives, 240km to a splendid old historical hotel on the shore of Nordfjord.  This journey included 3 ferry crossings, all part of the E39 trunk road we were following, and all ferries were electric. They have a large charger which plugs in automatically as the ferry docks, charges while vehicles unload and load, and unplugs automatically on departure. That first day's journey was well within the range of the Volvo, and our first night's hotel had EV chargers for guest use, but we took a break half way and charged at the side of a fjord to gain confidence.

As you would expect, Norway is well provided with EV chargers, and we never found a charger out of service or fully occupied. However our advance planning had suggested that a load of mobile apps would be needed. Our first charge, on an Eviny rapid charger, was a fiddle. The charger claimed to accept RFID and credit cards but in the end only the app worked (once I added a payment method). But we succeeded, and thereafter I found myself seeking out Eviny chargers because I was now comfortable with them, and there were plenty around.
Next day took us to Ålesund, a beautiful and busy port town which we were lucky enough to see in perfect weather. We paused there for a couple of days, before heading to Molde, which gave us the opportunity to see the famous Atlantic Bridges. We watched the arrival of the Hurtigruten ferry at both Ålesund and Molde.

From Molde, we drove inland, over the incredible Trollsteigen pass, lots of steep ascents and hairpin bends on which the 4x4 excelled. We ended the day in Geiranger, a beautiful little village nestling between the mountains around Geiranger Fjord.  Here we were able to use public chargers outside a museum beside our hotel.  The hotel also had a bank of EV chargers, but they were very expensive.

We completed our tour back to Bergen via Sognefjord (Balestrand) to Hardanger Fjord, in an area filled with apple trees laden with red fruit. This journey included two very long tunnels, one with a roundabout in the middle of the tunnel!
The Infrastructure in Norway impressed us immensely in comparison to the UK. No potholes, and everything is well organised and works smoothly. There is a lot of new road infrastructure in what is very challenging terrain, with many long road tunnels, new bridges, and a superb ferry system, most paid for by tolls which are collected automatically and levied until the capital cost has been repaid.  (And EVs are partially exempt from many of the tolls).

In summary we had a wonderful road trip in our rented Volvo. No range anxiety, despite the remoteness of some of our travel. In the end I used only a few of the charging apps I had downloaded, concentrating on Evigny and a network called Recharge (no relation to our Shell Recharge network) on which I found that my Octopus Electroverse card worked and gave us a discount. It also works in Spain, but that's another story.

Definitely a road trip to be recommended.

Adapted from an article first published in the April 2024 edition of Eyemouth Living magazine.

Some notes on our Volvo XC40: Our dual-motor version comes with all-wheel drive and has a power output of 408bhp, a 75kwh battery, and has a range of 311 miles. One pedal driving, mapping based on Google maps which predicts battery percentage at destination and return. Hertz supplied both type 2 and domestic ('granny') charging cables. Our overall average consumption was 18.8kwh/100km. We did 1,700km, and spent £75 on charging. Hertz supplied the car at 80%, and will add a recharging fee if you return it with lees than 80%. Total cost of rental was £700 for 12 days, including full insurance. It also includes ferry and road toll charges, which are collected automatically and added to your rental bill.