Norway is known by Americans for reindeer and the Northern Lights, and by Europeans for being the leader in electric vehicles – also often quickly referred to as EVs.
EVs are gaining steam across Europe as countries seek to decarbonise their vehicle fleets. Norway, being particularly ahead of the curve, has mandated that from 2025, all newly registered cars must be electric. Which means EVs are going to soon become your only rental car option.
And honestly, that’s not a bad thing. For one, EVs are always automatic transmission. So if you come from North America you can literally never accidentally book a car hire with a clutch thing. For everyone else, EVs will generally be cheaper to use than a traditional fuel-powered car. That’s because electricity is way cheaper in Norway than petrol or diesel (and 98% of their electricity comes from renewables). Plus, Norway offers EVs discounts on tolls, ferries, and even parking.
That said, if you’re new to EVs, you’ll probably experience one or two of the following – range anxiety and charge anxiety.
Range anxiety is the fear that the EV’s battery will die before you get to where you wanted to go or before you manage to find a charging station.
Charge anxiety is the fear that once you do find that charging station, something will go wrong and you won’t be able to use the charger.
In Norway, you don’t need to be worried about either coming true.
How Far Your EV Will Take You
The VW ID.7 we had, had a range of 600+ km. It also had a handy feature where it would recharge the battery when pressing the brake on the downhills. That said, the range was more than enough to get us all the way from Oslo to our first stop in the fjords over 4 hours away, and then through to the next day’s drive still. Arguably, the distance an EV can go is similar to a petrol car. You can probably go several days on your holiday with 1-2 hours of driving a day (80kph) without needing to recharge.
Where to Charge your EV in Norway
If your battery is running low, there are loads of charging options around Norway. There’s a ton in Oslo – both slower chargers along the streets and hubs of faster chargers at petrol stations. Outside of the city, you will generally find charging at predominately three places:
- Petrol stations off the major roads: these tend to be fast chargers, meaning it will take 10-20 minutes to recharge your car to 80% of the battery
- Supermarkets: these are either fast chargers like at the petrol stations or slower chargers that can take a few hours to recharge your car
- Accommodation, like hotels and campsites: many, but not all, hotels and campsites have slower chargers you can use – these will typically take 6-8 hours to recharge your car to 80% of the battery
The Least Annoying Way to Charge your EV in Norway
Let’s face it – charging a car is no where near as fast as refilling a tank with petrol. And when you’re on holiday, the last thing you want to do is waste time watching the battery percentage slowly tick upwards. But you’re also in Norway so the actual last thing you want to do is pay Norweigan prices for anything, because they’re just plain unaffjordable.
The general rule of thumb is, the slower the charger, the cheaper it is. A slow 11 kW charger will cost you roughly 3 NOK a kW to use whereas a fast 200 kW charger will cost double. A Volkswagen ID.4 (a fairly common rental EV in Norway) has a 77 kW battery. Recharging the entire thing to 100% at a slow charger costs only about 23 USD (as of June 2025) as opposed to 46 USD at the 200 kW charger. Since you’ll need to recharge a few times as you go, like any normal car, paying double can add up.
So the trick to saving money is to recharge overnight to 100% at your accommodation using a slow 7.4 kW or 11 kW charger and to top-up at fast chargers (>150 kW) only when you have to and with just enough charge that you can comfortably get to your next slow charger.
If you do have to top-up your charge, you can usually combine it with a quick grocery stop given most chargers have a supermarket, like a Kiwi, a few steps away or a bathroom break.
How to Charge your EV in Norway
Ok, this is the annoying part that Norway hasn’t quite worked out. You’re going to need your phone, mobile data and an app, plus a dozen more apps.
While some of the fast chargers allow you to connect the cable to the vehicle and tap your card to start the charging station, most chargers, especially the slow ones, require you to download an app and register your name and card details before you can start a charging session. Sometime, these apps are not available on the USA app store, so you might have to play around a little to find a web-based version to make a payment.
The mobile apps that you may want to download and set up ahead of time include:
- Bilkraft
- Elton
- Glup
- Charge365 (there are two versions of this app – get the one from the European app store)
Returning your Rental Car
Unlike traditional petrol cars, EVs typically don’t need to be returned full. Budget and Avis, for example, only expect you to return the car with a minimum 70% charge on the battery. Plan to recharge your car overnight before heading back to the airport – that way you only need to spend 10 minutes topping up at a fast charger on your way back, if at all.
