Well! If I ever had to try going electric with a car, Norway really seemed like the easiest place to do it. In theory, everything looked great: the country has plenty of charging stations, which should make the ride carefree, without worrying too much about availability or broken chargers.
My journey started at Oslo airport, with the car fully charged — a good beginning. At the rental counter, the first instructions were clear:
- Please return it with at least 70% charge.
- You can download the Elton app to charge along the way.
That’s when the first complication appeared: you need an app linked to your wallet to find and connect to charging points. But the stations shown on the car’s GPS aren’t always compatible with the Elton app. Of course, there are several apps, each working with different charging networks. Welcome to the jungle. In the end, though, it worked out — more or less.
The unexpected challenge was having to constantly plan distances and charging stops. The range of an electric car is still much shorter than that of our good old polluting ones, and charging takes time. It’s fine if you have something to do nearby, but otherwise you might just end up scrolling on TikTok while waiting.
Luckily, I always found something to keep me busy. Once, I stumbled upon a very cosy bar serving delicious waffles, run by a typical Norwegian blonde, with a view over the sea. The 50 minutes of charging passed faster than expected.
Another surprise: once you’ve set up charging, you also need another app to pay for parking. Yes, you pay for the electricity, but not for the space itself. A bit strange, but probably the only way to avoid people leaving their car plugged in just to enjoy free parking.
My last experience was charging like locals do at the office. The place I visited had sockets for every parking spot, and with a cable you could plug in freely. At the end of the day, though, I had a little embarrassment: the car was charged, but the cable got stuck. After a few minutes fiddling with the car’s display, it finally released.
Electrical cars has potential, when you are working in the same area, same habits, conditions that allows shopping or working or practicing sport during chaging.Sofar in Switzerland, in 2025, it is still a big overhead of organization and additional time. Phil
So yes, it works — but it does require extra organisation. I’m not sure I’d repeat the experience soon. Maybe I’ll wait until the apps are more universal and the range a bit better.
For now, my efforts are focused more on reducing car use altogether. Not cutting it completely — living in a small town makes that nearly impossible — but simply driving less whenever I can.
Safe travels, and don’t forget to keep exploring, stay curious :-)
