In Norway, the Electric Vehicle Future Has Already Arrived

(Sorry, I can't read the article thanks to a paywall... I still can try to provide some background)

Electric cars were very popular in Norway since electricity was extremely cheap (sometimes around 6 ct/kWh) and the purchase of a new electric car was heavily subsidized - no VAT (25% in Norway), no road tools and no taxes, also lots of free chargers. Cars with combustion engines were heavily taxed in comparison. A Tesla model 3 was not a lot more expensive than a regular VW Golf (but Norway started the trend way before Tesla existed - there are still a lot of first generation Nissan Leafs in the country). Easy choice for many - however, in the far North of Norway, using an electric car when you lived in the countryside could still be a challenge since there were only a few chargers available.

All of this is changing right now or has already changed in the last few months. Electricity prices have soared in Norway thanks to a few very dry summers (Norway generates ~98% of their electricity using hydro power generators) and a new power cable crossing the Baltic Sea which allows the energy companies to sell their electricity to Germany. This makes driving an electric car much less attractive. Gas prices are not exactly cheap in Norway (> 2€/l last time I checked) even though Norway has lots of oil - but no refineries (and more taxes on gas).

Source: I lived in Norway for two years (2020/2021).

Importing my combustion engine car (a Mazda Miata/MX5) would have cost around 8000€ in import fees - and a convertible doesn't make too much sense in Norway :). Back in Germany now some things still feel like being sent two decades back in time...