Norway went the other way. They taxed fossil fuel cars at 100%.

Have you lived in Norway? It's a low density country and also very cold a lot of the year. You're not cycling around for a lot of journeys.

No one cares when there's 3 fueling stations per mile

You're not in Norway.

You're correct, I'm not.

Aside from Belgium, this is almost exclusively because the countries happened to have a lot of potential for hydro power.

Not because they're wealthy or care about the environment. Because they really don't. Or at the very least not as much as they do about making billionaires richer at the expense of the environment.

Indeed. It's almost like my comment was aimed squarely at certain countries. My own UK and the USA being particularly in mind.

Brother, i live in sweden. Also people all over the nordics cycle. A lot of people cycle in coppenhagen for example. Same in stockholm tho id argue that weather in stockholm is actually legit better than coppenhagen even tho its quite a bit more northern. Also ive been on cycling holidays to norway. So no, its not too cold for cycling.

Uruguay is at 44%, Laos has prohibited ICE cars too. Poor countries that import fuel are switching fast, mostly they are going to 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler EVs since those are cheaper

I'm Norwegian, and I regularily drive a EV a good distance to visit my parents. I can inform you that the range is indeed reduced noticabily in the winter.

My route is around 350km and includes crossing over a mountain range. My EV has a range of around 300km, which is on the lower end for EVs. In the summer, I can make the trip with a single charging stop around midway. During the winter, I need to charge at least twice during that trip.

It's not that I mind charging an additional time, but let's be honest about how temperature affects range.

I live in norway and drive an EV. There are a lot of chargers around, and the infrastructure has adapted to EVs being the norm. Most gas stations offer charging and small charging stations are popping up in many other parking lots. Maybe not multiple stations per mile, but enough to never having to be worried about not being able to reach the next charger.

The science is the range indicator can say a lower number when the battery is cold. But you get your range back once the battery heats up. Thermal management is really good on recent models. Doesn't really matter because it's rare to drive 300+km in a day even in the US.

It doesn't matter if you're driving 45min to work, your car was charged overnight and most workplaces offer charging.

No one cares when there's 3 fueling stations per mile and it only takes 5 minutes to refuel.

I certainly do at ~$12/gal.

Maybe Ford did something crazy with their 2025 EVs? I was getting 300km of the stated 350... E18/E6 clear weather dry asphalt. So pretty ideal conditions other than cold.

The science is the range indicator can say a lower number when the battery is cold. But you get your range back once the battery heats up

I'd love to see that science.

It doesn't matter if you're driving 45min to work, your car was charged overnight

No one cares about range on their commute to work...

Trains are og electric vehicles. Those giant diesels are just generators. Replacing them with a battery would be interesting, just how big of a battery would a train need?

My route is Road 134 over Haukelifjell which could be heavily affected by other driving conditions. But even when I drive on cold days with no other particular conditions, the battery percent drops a lot quicker.

Overhead powerlines work for a lot of rail, diesel-electric is a reasonable compromise I see used here, runs on overhead electric when it can, diesel otherwise. You can electrify the lines with the worst air quality first without having to electrify 100% of the network.

As for batteries, interesting idea, I wonder how far you would get with a fairly short range battery, or essentially turning the current diesel-electrics into plug-in hybrids. Helps that trains are pretty energy efficient too.

Netherlands and Belgium have no hydro either. They have plenty water, but no height.

I love in Denmark and hydro is not very wide spread. Wind power is though.

The reason why EVs are popular though is because gas prices are exceptionally high, partly because of extreme fees and because EVs are taxed a lot milder. So in a way it is a political decision by the country

Um I'd say fairly hard, and I'm decently conversational in Spanish and my japanese is ~N4 level. It's a really specific language (danish) so small mistakes make it basically unintelligible. But the actual language is very simple.

It's not anywhere near as necessary as a lot of other places in the world though, since many people here speak English really well. But it's definitely important for long term prospects here and anywhere else you are.

It's a stress point among many when living somewhere besides your home country, for sure!

This is not correct. Half these countries are some of the flattest in Europe. Norway is an abundant oil producer.

In these countries, tax policies are used to steer towards electric vehicles for environmental and national security reasons.

As someone living in Norway, Norway could do a lot more to be less car-centric. It could also do a lot less, that's true, it's not nearly as bad as other places, but I would like to see a lot more drastic changes to reduce or eliminate cars, especially in urban areas

To move. I'm planning to take a vacation to the Netherlands to see if I can fit in with the culture after I graduate, and then work towards finding a job there if I like it. The EU is putting a lot of effort into promoting and adopting open source as part of digital sovereignty, and I want to be a part of that movement. I'd be curious to hear what your experiences were like moving to another country.

Yeah! Open source wise you're absolutely correct. It's obviously not perfect (and I'm in Denmark, not the Netherlands) but there's so much less tech dystopia here than the US.

Um yeah, there's a lot to say! It's hard for many reasons, logistics, distance from family and friends, cultural differences. I guess the main things are keeping a (gainful) job for a visa (I mean I had that pressure for money and healthcare in the US, so I'm used to it). Learning a language and culture. Dealing with dark winters. Being a foreigner at a time when many countries are being less inviting to them. But all the upsides are amazing and plentiful! It's so worth, but man it's not for the faint of heart

I did start my comment with 'Aside from Belgium', but you're right about the Netherlands.

Checking its energy mix now, it looks like it has even less hydroelectricity than Belgium.

Somewhat true. I got the hydroelectricity generation wrong for Denmark and the Netherlands, so my point is only really correct for half the list, as you said.

But it's not just about the surface being flat.

Still, Norway and Sweden have some of the highest hydroelectricity generation worldwide. With Finland a little behind, but holding strong at top 40 globally.

Norway is an abundant oil producer.

Exactly my point.

In these countries, tax policies are used to steer towards electric vehicles for environmental and national security reasons.

Aside from Finland and maybe Belgium, none of these countries care about the environment. If they did, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands wouldn't be among Europe's biggest crude oil producers.

We really need to stop glazing the Nordic countries as if they were some utopias completely free of crimes, where governments wanted the best for everyone.

Most of their successes are simply due to circumstances outside of their control, and paid for by poorer countries.

Copenhagen is about the same latitude as north England or Ireland. It's not mountainous and fairly warm. It's great for cycling, especially with the water buses. (I really like Copenhagen)

Norway is rather different on the whole. Outside of Oslo or the larger towns I doubt you'd see as much, especially as you go north.

I am calling none of these countries utopias.

However, it is disingenuous to say that Norway does not care about the environment. It has very strict emissions targets domestically that it is on pace to meet. While it is absolutely hypocritical with its oil production, it is still doing things like running electricity power from shore to the oil rigs to further cut emissions.

Thanks for sharing, that confirms a lot of my suspicions. I'm well aware it'll probably be one of the hardest things I'll ever do in my life, but I feel like its one of the few places that has a hopeful future. Not having anyone to rely on is the thing I dread the most, especially for things like emergency situations. I'm gonna have to put a lot of effort into meeting new people, making friends, and building a new support network. It's a daunting task.

I read somewhere that almost 50% of all car sales are electric now. Not that electric cars are some panacea, but I for one think ICE should go the way of the dinosaur.

The combustion engine will remain longer for a lot of heavier diesel vehicles I think, but as for most gasoline cars, EVs should take over rapidly.

France has very little oil and EV purchases this summer hit around 45%. So it's doable. High oil prices helps ofc :-)

What is the initial cost of an EV compared to ICE in these countries, including tax credit?

To see how is it helped by governments.

To give an exemple here a peugeot 308 is from 33k (with 7k bonus) and 30k ICE (France)

Yes to everything you've said. The good news is that plenty of other people who have moved there from other places are in the same position to want to make friends. And there's loads of clubs and activities and organizations to become a part of. All of which are great ways to make community!

But yeah it's straight up hard often times. It gets way easier though. People are often surprised when I say it took a full year or a little longer to get settled

I was thinking a fully electric train, how much batteries would it take to match a regular diesel locamotive. I assume it would out would be multiple cars. One near idea is that each car would have it's own battery and motors and the load could be shared and would scale very well.

Yeah you could go fully electric for a train. I don't know if its really worth it or not though. Cost of diesel engine vs batteries I suppose, and if the batteries cost more, how much for that on every train as opposed to just electrifying all the rails.

Current diesel electric is pretty good, adding a short distance battery might help some of the routes that branch off a little from main lines.

Although some train operators are still running diesel only even though the rails have overhead power.