Battery electric vehicle user experiences in Norway’s maturing market

Battery electric vehicle (BEV) users are moving into the early majority user group in Norway, according to a survey of users conducted in June 2018. Compared with a survey conducted in 2016, they have approached the average socio-demographics of vehicle owners. This development has been facilitated by the availability of new BEV models with longer range, improvements to the fast charger networks to allow for long distance driving and less stress in daily traffic, and the increased familiarity with BEVs in the population. Large incentives and the low marginal cost of use has made BEVs very attractive in the market but could potentially lead to a risk that the total volume of traffic increases more than anticipated. So far this potential effect seems to be fairly limited. Fewer users have experienced trouble with their BEV and the willingness to buy a BEV again is even higher than in 2016.