250,000 electric cars are needed in Norway by 2020 for the government to fulfil the EU directive on renewable energy. Although funds have been set aside to build the charging points some experts say this is money out of the window, whilst others don’t think the window is big enough.

Common standard

Jon Winding-Sørensen, the editor of Bilforlaget, claims that the government has set itself an impossible task, claiming that the figure of 250,000 vehicles in ten years is completely unrealistic with today’s technology.

“Nobody has agreed upon what type of plug will be put in which wall,” he tells NRK.

There is also no common standard for what how strong the current should be. Winding-Sørensen believes these problems should be solved before spending the money.

Shortcomings

But Eva Sølvi, head of Transnova – the department within the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) responsible for distributing the funds – doesn’t think 50 million kroner is a waste of money, it’s too little.

“50 million for 3,000 charging stations will be enough for this and next year, but we’ll need more after that if we are to achieve 250,000 electric cars by 2020,” she tells The Foreigner.

Norway has a total of 2,400 electric cars on the road today, and whilst some have criticised their design, they are a long way from being able to replace current diesel or petrol models in size and distance.