>

Why does population matter?  Unless you are arguing that we are too economically weak to support new tech or something.
I'm in the UK and would LOVE to go electric. But the government insists on letting the private sector lead on infrastructure growth with fuck all meaningful incentives, and the private sector is slacking because not many people are choosing to buy electric cars. As a result, many people are putting off buying them. 
I travel a lot for work. A LOT, all over the country. In some areas, I'm going to be fine. But if I get sent up to the lake district, many areas of Wales or frankly nearly anywhere north of Manchester, I feel like I'd be rolling the dice. >

the UK does have some incredible incentives for company car schemes. I get that that would not be for everyone, but they are doing something. >

Actually getting hold of an electric car isn't really a problem. Like you said,  there are incentives. It's the supporting infrastructure that's the problem. 
Petrol stations are, understandably, everywhere. You're rarely stuck for finding somewhere to refill the car. 
Electric charging stations are patchy. Some areas are immensely well populated, others are... not. You don't want to feel like you're dancing with the devil when you're running low. >

I think it makes a big difference if you opt for a Tesla vs another brand as you have a lot more options. 
I rented a Tesla in the UK and did a road trip from Cheshire to the Isle of Skye, which ended up taking about 12 hours due to traffic and having to stop. There are ways of making it work pretty much anywhere. When I arrived at the AirBnb I charged using a standard household outdoor socked the owner used for plugging his lawnmower in and gave him some money for the electricity. It worked fantastically well. 
That said, the government need to commit more support for EV charging, private companies will not invest too quickly as they won't get money back quickly enough. The government need to do more to incentivise roll out. >

Is it different in the UK compared to the rest of Europe? Tesla superchargers are open to non-Tesla in Europe >

You are right, but this is not yet fully rolled out, even in continental Europe. Probably by end of 2023. >

One day the idea of paying for a parking space will be ridiculous as we will be paying to charge our cars.
Like, imagine booking a meal through a deal and in the deal you get 2 hours car charging for "free" to entice you. >

In my city the cinema is already on it. Buy a ticket, park in the underground car park, “free” charge during the movie. >

Yeah, my local malls have been offering free EV charging with store purchase over $20 for like ten years already (Nissan Leaf came out in 2010). >

EVs are often criticized for having improper battery life in cold climate.. is norway doing something different ? >

I would imagine a smaller more urbanized country like Norway or most of Europe would make EV battery life in the cold easier to deal with. 
If you only drive a few dozen miles a day, having your max range drop from 300 to 100 miles in the cold doesn't really matter to most people. They can just charge it overnight.
The US and Canada on the otherhand get cold and are spread out so EVs are less useful to more people. >

Ah well I fooled myself, in my mind Norway was way wider than in reality, which I assumed would be closer to US travel pattern.. >

Honestly even with US driving distances it's not a big deal. I get home from work and plug in my car with 130 spare miles of range instead of 150. So what? >

Hyundai has announced that they will not sell any ice vehicles in Norway. That includes no PHEVs. Major change for Hyundai >

because over the last 3 years 90% of Hyundai sales were EV. no one bought their hybrid cars >

The UK government used to offer a discount for EV purchases, but they've stopped that now, and supposedly now spending that money on installing more chargers around the country. While I appreciate the more chargers the better, I also would have loved some help getting the car in the first place! >

The UK government doesn't understand the concept of money.  Spending on both is cheaper. >

Hidden in there is the fact that luxury EV’s will start being taxed from this year, so there was a slight sales bump this year.
EV sales have been growing fairly steadily as long as the tax incentives have been in place, so I suspect the natural number of market share is currently around 75% with the extra 5% coming from people rushing to beat the tax hike. >

Fantastic news >

Thanks for posting some positive news 💚 >

Norway the greatest hypocrite when it comes to greenwashing, they made there money out of gassing the earth, and now the Government pretends to be doing something about it while they continue to pump more and more fossil fuel. >

So Norway foot the bill at approximately $38,000 per car. SMH Am I the only one who sees how asinine this is? >

They've got a sovereign wealth fund from all that oil. >

Last I heard it was like $1 trillion. I say this as a jealous Albertan who's government can't seem to do anything but give tax breaks an get mad at unions. >

If the government gave enough incentives, 80% of all cars sold could be $200k sports cars.  What's going to end up happening though is that these incentives won't last forever and people are going to have to deal with the real cost of these things. >

Ok…what is your point? >

The population isn't buying electric cars because they want them or think they are better.  They are buying them because the government people decided it was better.  It makes everyone's taxes and cost of living go up.  If the electric car was truly the superior vehicle, the government wouldn't need these incentives.  Also, electric cars aren't really all that environmentally friendly.  Yes they don't pollute at the back of the car, but the energy needed to make them go has to be produced somewhere.  The environmentalist can hold up solar and wind, but people tend to charge their cars at night, and wind is unreliable and needs fossil fuel plants to back it up.  A lot of the energy is lost in the transfer as well between the electrical lines and the actual charging.  It also requires mining of rare metals and aluminum that make red water that can't be recycled.
A huge portion of this environmentalism is a fad that doesn't really save the planet that is repeated by people who may only spend 5 minutes a day in actual nature. >

You are right.  Not worth it.  No reason to embrace anything new.  It’s not like the government incentivizes anything else.  Harvesting oil is clearly ideal long term and tech never grows and improves with funding so what is the point.  Fuck, put lead back in gas.  It never hurt anybody and catalytic converters were just big government overreach.  Not sure why we even made advances in petroleum chemistry starting in the 70s…just cost money.  Leaded gas is good enough for North Korea and Afghanistan and Iraq so clearly we are morons ripping ourself off for no real reason…oh wait even those countries are making an effort.  We would be stupid to even try if there wasn’t a magical perfect solution already funded that required zero improvement.  That’s why I don’t bitch about oil wars because they just make sense and it would be moronic to encourage energy change and also regulate resource acquisition and fund tech to minimize the need for detrimental human activity.  I’m all about going back to sail based ocean navigation too because who is the government to tell us anything else is possible and to stay industrially relevant >

Who looks after charging? That’s the big question for infrastructure to support electrics. Not to mention the environmental issues with batteries >

Who looks after gasoline and diesel?  Where did that infrastructure come from?  What is the difference?  Government uses subsidies to incentivize business and that is how you grow and stay relevant as the world’s tech changes.  That is sort of their point >

Oil and gas have been around for many, many years. EV is a new technology requiring totally new infrastructure. The world doesn't change on a dime, and there are many companies, politicians who still advocate for no change. That's where the problem arises >

These subsidies have been in place for like 15 years. There's EV chargers all over the place. >

Depends what country you’re in I’d say. Also whether they’re Tesla only >

In most countries, the power comes out of wall sockets in private homes and businesses. >

Not sure your point, but thanks for chiming in >

Well you inferred that some countries have fewer charging points than others. I just pointed out that the vast majority of EV charging is done at home. >

Ok. That’s great for urban areas, but traveling long distances is an issue if infrastructure isn’t there. Obviously Europe, with a dense population and smaller countries is better able to effect change >

Yes for sure. The standalone infrastructure still needs to improve, OR battery technology to improve to the point they either have enough charge for a full 10-12 hour drive, or they can be recharged in the same amount of time it takes to gas up a fossil vehicle. But you have to remember we are extremely early in the EV technology cycle. Same as the earliest petrol vehicles, I would guess there were issues getting them fuelled up too. >

Top exporter of oil in EU.... >

Norway isn't a member of EU. >

That guy doesn't geography >

I don't do hypocrisy either. >

Cheers to Norway. Unfortunately almost half of us states have Norway’s population. Gonna take us a minute especially since right now we have no where near enough power to charge even if only 10% us drivers had electric cars.