On E-Mission: Winter Drive to the North Cape

Huge snowflakes, gritting vehicles, extremely adverse conditions: As we drive off the ferry in Oslo, we find ourselves in the middle of a snowstorm. A small foretaste of what awaits us in the next two weeks – and exactly what we were looking for. Because we want to see how advanced e-mobility is under extreme conditions. With nearly 20 teams, we drive to the North Cape in the depths of winter.

Personally, I'm not just excited about the adventure or the prospect of the Northern Lights and wild elk. Norway is considered a model country for e-mobility. More than two-thirds of newly registered vehicles are purely electric, and public charging points are virtually everywhere. As a longtime electric car driver and entrepreneur, I'm convinced that this very point will be the bottleneck of the traffic transition. Can we learn from Norway?

Winter drives up consumption – but e-cars are still more efficient than any internal combustion engine

Each team drives a different model, ideal conditions for a practical market overview. Every opportunity is used to discuss battery temperatures and charging curves in detail. It quickly becomes clear: Electric cars are now also practical under adverse conditions. After all, our tour includes everything from snowstorms to freezing rain. The roads are virtually snow-covered throughout, with the lowest recorded temperature being -18.5 degrees.

It's not just the premium manufacturers who have obviously managed to transfer their technical excellence to battery-powered vehicles. Even in the newcomer Aiways U5, which my co-driver Manuel and I are steering, we feel safe and comfortable at all times. And even a small car like the Renault Zoe can keep up without any problems. It's also nice to see that with the Mercedes EQV and the Citroën ë-SpaceTourer, two thoroughly family-friendly models are included. Anyone buying a modern electric car today can be sure of reaching a place like the North Cape with it. 

Of course, the conditions are reflected in consumption. Due to increased heating needs and rolling resistance, ours is sometimes over 25 kWh / 100 km. That is still more efficient than internal combustion engines. An additional plus point: Since the motor doesn't need to warm up first, the heating works from the start and during charging breaks, and it is emission-free.

A shortcoming remains the pre-conditioning of the batteries in cold weather. Charging capacities are usually much lower than expected. Still: No charging stop (10 to 90 % SoC) took longer than an hour. The fact that we didn't drive more than 500 kilometers per day was primarily due to road conditions.

The charging infrastructure: Even in Norway, still mixed

If you drive a Tesla, charging concerns are a thing of the past. Within its own ecosystem, the Californian manufacturer has already successfully solved this issue. For everyone else, it remains a challenge – surprisingly, even in Norway. Although there are over four times as many charging points per capita on paper, this is hardly noticeable in practice, especially outside major cities.

Particularly astonishing: Destination charging is just as underdeveloped in Norway as it is here. There's no question, fast charging is important for long distances or special cases such as emergency services, and there has certainly been progress in this area. The real key to the traffic transition, however, lies in affordable, grid-friendly normal charging stations that are available everywhere cars are parked, from shopping centers to hotels.

Only this can ensure a comprehensive supply of climate-friendly generated electricity. This is precisely the supply gap we aim to close with Lade. We need affordable, scalable, and easy-to-use charging infrastructure across the board so that hotel guests can charge overnight and employees during working hours without stress. Even in the pioneering land of e-mobility, there is still a lot to be done in this regard.

And unfortunately, this also applies to all processes related to charging. We needed three different apps just for route and charge planning. While one person was driving the vehicle, the other was almost constantly busy adjusting the route to the current conditions.

It's even worse when it comes to billing. We had to install ten apps and register each time to use the charging points of different operators. The functionality varies enormously. There are clearly more pleasant activities than entering a twelve-digit credit card number into a Norwegian app without translation, with gloves on and needing to use the restroom in sub-zero temperatures. This aspect of our journey was sobering.

What does that mean?

Networking, integration, and digital processing of charging operations remain central challenges for manufacturers and operators of charging infrastructure. Those who don't drive a Tesla still have to endure many inconveniences in 2022. This saddens my electromobile heart. However, as an entrepreneur, I now know that we are on the right track with charging.