Norway turns into a clean car laboratory

By Jarle Hetland

Date: 24/03/05

Norway, a country whose wealth is founded on oil, has become a testing ground for a range of measures to promote cleaner cars.

Last year, a highly publicised campaign by Greenpeace in the US drew the attention of the world to Norway's pioneering work with electric cars.

It was as long ago as 1990 that Norway scrapped registration tax on electrical cars. Six years later electrical cars were exempted from the annual vehicle tax and from road tolls - a significant economic benefit in a country riddled with bridges, motorways and underwater tunnels. Government institutions were likewise encouraged to invest in the electrical cars.

In the early 1990s the Norwegian government invested heavily in a privately owned factory for electric cars, Think Nordic. But after being close to bankruptcy it was first sold to Ford (who bought the factory to comply with the now scaled-back Californian zero-emissions law) and then to the Switzerland-based KampKorp Electronics.

The Norwegian-built car hit the headlines last year when Ford decided to scrap several hundred of its Think leasing cars in the US, instead of sending them back to Norway where there were (and still are) long waiting-lists of people eager to get hold of one. Only after massive pressure from environmental groups led by Greenpeace and pressure from the Norwegian government did Ford agree to send the cars back.

In 2002, another incentive was introduced for electrical cars when they were exempted from value added tax (VAT). And earlier this year Torhild Skogsholm, the transport minister, announced plans for a nationwide roll-out of free-parking and for electrical cars to use public transport lanes reserved for buses and taxis.

Although virtually tax-free (in an otherwise heavily taxed society), electrical cars have not achieved all the success they were meant to get and the Norwegian government has now shifted its attention towards other forms of clean transport. Rune Nygård of the Norwegian finance department says the country is now implementing the same measures for hydrogen-based cars as those already in place for electric cars.

Nygård points out that these fiscal incentives are only applicable to cars using zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cells - not hybrid cars, which still produce substantial amounts of CO2.

Like the rest of Europe, Norway has ratified the Kyoto Protocol but is still far above the allowed emission levels. But where other countries have been cutting their emissions within the power production sector, Norway sees the transport sector as its main target for emission cuts.

There is more to Norway's energy than North Sea oil. Most of Norway's electricity comes from hydro power and it has a long industrial history of using natural gas and biomass. It also has one of the world's leading industries in producing hydrogen. Norsk Hydro, which is also an oil-giant, has become an expert in the development of hydrogen through electrolysis techniques. Likewise, the country's other oil-giant, Statoil, is investing heavily in the development of hydrogen energy.

Although technological improvements in hydrogen-based cars are crucial for the development of viable 'clean car industry', just as important is the development of viable infrastructures to make it possible for cars to run from point A to point B. The necessary measures include everything from the production of hydrogen, to transport of hydrogen and the provision of filling stations. Most filling stations built today are usually located near to the manufacturers' plants.

This year sees the start of the Hydrogen Road of Norway (HyNor), which will assess the commercial viability of hydrogen as a fuel for cars. Part of the pan-European Hyways-project, which is co-funded by research institutes, industry and the European Commission, HyNor will by 2008 be a fully functional 580 kilometre long hydrogen infrastructure linking the capital Oslo in the east with Stavanger - the country's oil and energy centre - in the west.

Unlike other similar projects, which are mostly based around metropolitan areas, HyNor will cover a variety of means of transport such as buses, taxis and private cars and a variety of different transport networks such as urban, regional and inter-city systems. The project will also assess effectiveness in different seasons and various topographic variations from warm and dry summers to cold, humid and salty winters.

As the HyNor project and the production of hydrogen for cars does produce some emissions, one problem will be what to do with the CO2. In the Stavanger region injecting the area's tomatoes with the greenhouse gas is considered one solution as CO2 is known to promote their growth.

In addition, Think Nordic has recently announced plans to unveil a hydrogen version of its electric Think City model in 2006.

Some, though, have raised their voices against the project. Environmentalist group Bellona, which imported the first electrical car and the first hydrogen car to Norway, is already running its own hydrogen project in co-operation with the German Linde Group in the Oslo region.

Isak Oksvold, Bellona's hydrogen car specialist, says that an "urban solution" would be preferable to the corridor planned between Oslo and Stavanger. Oksvold says that getting big business to invest in the emission-free vehicles would be far easier in Oslo in the first stage rather than providing a few cars to every small village along Norway's southern coast.

But with broad political support in Stortinget, the Norwegian parliament, Norway is more than likely to pour large amounts of money into research for cleaner cars and the infrastructure needed to make the industry viable in the coming years. That stance is unlikely to change even if the current centre-right government is replaced with a centre-left government come the September general election.

Despite being Europe's largest producer of oil and gas, and arguably therefore involved in massive damage to the atmosphere, the EU's northern neighbour looks set on a completely different future. Perhaps it will one day live up to its image as Europe's cleanest country too.

For some years Norway has been testing alternatives to the petrol/diesel powered car.

HyWays Project: Homepage http://www.hyways.de/

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