Torqeedo has opened a direct sales office in Norway to serve the growing market for electric marine propulsion systems there. This is Torqeedo’s eighth direct sales office worldwide.

The Norwegian company Teco 2030 is planning Norway’s first “gigafactory” for fuel cells for use in ships. Fuel cells with an output of 1.2 gigawatts per year are to be produced there.

In spring 2021, the first all-electric charter fleet will start operating on the Norwegian Telemark Canal. The fleet will be comprised of six charter boats equipped with Torqeedo e-drives from the Slovenian shipyard Greenline Yachts.

Hydrovolt has started construction of a battery recycling plant in Fredrikstad, Norway. The newly founded joint venture between the Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro says the plant will be operational at the end of 2021.

Statkraft makes another acquisition in the field of charging infrastructure: The Norwegian state-owned energy company announces the takeover of 51 per cent of the shares of the Swedish provider Bee Charging Solutions. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

General Motors hired actor and comedian Will Ferrell for its Super Bowl commercial, in which the company promotes its Ultium platform. Norway as the market leader for electric cars? They don’t want to put up with that in the USA!

The Canadian-Norwegian battery specialist Corvus Energy has announced that it will start developing and producing maritime fuel cell systems on a large scale in cooperation with Toyota.

The new plug-in car registrations have come out for Norway. Market shares look impressive as usual in Europe’s EV wonderland. Electric cars make for over half of all sales in the first month of the year. Still, there’s been a slight decline.

Norway has not always been the promised land for EV enthusiasts. In fact, it took the oil-producing nation a while to become a fan of electric driving. Incentives played a role of course but before the money came a push in popularity from an unlikely source.

Norway’s Norgesbuss has ordered 102 electric buses from VDL Bus & Coach for use in Oslo. This is the largest order for VDL in Europe to date.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Norway’s SINTEF institute are researching cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries in the EU project HYDRA together with ten partners. They want to test an industry-ready prototype for real-world operation in a ship battery system.

In Norway, 13,718 new electric passenger cars were registered in December nearly double the number registered the month before. Electric cars accounted for 66.7 per cent of new car registrations in December and 54 per cent for the year as a whole.

The Norwegian company Freyr that is planning to build a large battery cell factory in Rana, Norway, has signed a licensing agreement with cell specialist 24M Technologies. The US American spin-off is known for the development of ‘semi-solid’ technology.

The location has now been determined for the planned 32 GWh battery cell factory by Norwegian company Morrow Batteries for electric vehicles: The plant will be built in Eyde Energipark in Arendal in the southern Norwegian region of Agder. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2023.

Chinese manufacturer Xpeng has started delivering its electric cars to customers in Norway. One hundred units of the Xpeng G3 electric SUV are currently being handed over to their new owners in 28 Norwegian cities. Prices start at 358,000 kroner, the equivalent of around 33,700 euros.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has just announced the launch of the IPCEI Hydrogen. This is a joint European project (Important Projects of Common European Interest, or IPCEI) analogous to the two initiatives already launched in the field of battery cell manufacturing.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and NewMotion announce a new partnership for FCA’s business clients that will gain access to NewMotion’s entire charging ecosystem. The partners will roll out the service in twelve European countries, starting with France, Germany and the UK.

Hubject has entered into a cooperation with ultra-fast charging venture Scandinavia ApS. The 48 fast charging parks of the joint venture belonging to E.On and Clever in Denmark, Norway and Sweden will be connected to Hubject’s EV charging platform intercharge.

In Norway, 7,035 new electric cars were registered in November. Electric vehicles accounted for 56.1 per cent of new passenger car registrations. With 986 units, the VW ID.3 was the most popular model across all drive types.

In Bergen, 102 battery-electric buses from Yutong took up service at the beginning of this month, 88 of which are 12 meters long and 14 of which are 15 meters long. Besides the Yutong buses, Polish bus maker Solaris has provided ten trolleybuses.

Panasonic has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the energy company Equinor and the industrial group Norsk Hydro to explore the possibilities for building a “sustainable and cost-effective European battery business” for electric vehicles, likely in Norway.

In Norway, 7,873 new electric cars were registered in October. Electric cars accounted for 60.8 per cent of new passenger car registrations. With 2,475 units, the VW ID.3 was the most popular model across all drive types.

The Danish ride-hailing company Viggo, which specializes in electric cars, has ordered 300 Fisker Ocean. The Copenhagen-based provider was founded in 2019 and has 55 electric cars on offer to date. By the end of the year, the electric fleet is expected to grow to 100 vehicles.

Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) and Lexus Europe are launching a new charging service for Lexus drivers under the label “Lexus Charging Network”. The service is available in Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain and Italy.

43 per cent of Europeans now consider buying an electric vehicle and name climate change as one of the main reasons for doing so. This is but one result of the annual EVBox Mobility Monitor with respondents from six European countries.

Following reports of problems with the all-electric Polestar 2 after deliveries started a few weeks ago, Polestar confirmed that they detected “a software error in the battery power control module, which, in very rare cases and without warning can lead to a loss of drive”.

In Norway, 9,560 new electric cars were registered in September, therefore accounting for 61.5 per cent of all new passenger car registrations. With 1,989 units, the VW ID.3 was the most popular model across all drive types.

Plug-in hybrids have been losing their allure as bridges to a new era of clean transport with many analysis finding real-world consumption and CO2 emissions far from type-approval values. Fraunhofer ISI and the ICCT just prove this to hold globally and across models.

Danfoss Editron has received an order from the Norwegian shipyard Grovfjord Mekaniske Verksted (GMV) to supply hybrid propulsion systems for a fleet of unmanned exploration vessels. Four of the vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2021, with seven more to follow in the following months.

The northern Norwegian city of Bodø has ordered 31 electric buses from Volvo. The contract also covers the charging infrastructure and maintenance. When the buses go into service in July 2021, they will be the northernmost electric buses in the world and the first to be put into operation north of the Arctic Circle.