A-ha, Bellona and the Fiat were doing much to make EVs an acceptable and affordable option for the average Norwegian motorist as abhorrently high taxes made buying traditional cars there prohibitively expensive. They were subsequently cited as leading Norway’s Government to abolish road tolls for all EVs, a key incentive that resulted in the Country’s far-sited EV policy, with generous subsidies and other incentives offered to help expedite the nation’s dependence on polluting ICE cars.
That was way back in 1990. Ever since, beyond the scraping of road tolls, EVs have also been exempted from Norway’s substantial registration transfer fee which for new ICE cars ranges from 4,332 Krone (£371) for vehicles weighing up to 1,200kg, with up to 6,595 Krone (£565) for heavier cars, which includes most modern hatchbacks.
With Bellona’s expertise in clarifying the regulations to make it easier to later register electric cars in Norway, helped by A-ha’s high-profile involvement, local media interest and attention was very high. In 1996, the Government of the time caved and allowed the few EVs in Norway to travel for free on the country’s toll roads and ferry network.
That ruling came into effect in 1997 with just a handful of electric vehicles in use, so the local Government didn’t think that this decision was going to break the bank. This lasted until 2017, by which time EVs were dominating Norway’s new car market. EVs now attract 50 per cent of the full Norwegian road toll fees, still appealing enough to encourage EV drivers to ‘Stay on These Roads’ as ‘The Sun Always Shines on EV’ (sorry to any A-ha fans reading, but I just couldn’t resist!).
Since silently whisking around Oslo in that Panda back in 1990, A-ha singer Morten Harket in particular has remained an enthusiastic EV champion, teaming up with his two other band members last year to record a short Volkswagen Transporter EV van promotional film. It’s a shame it wasn’t for Fiat’s new electric 500 really, as this would have been more fitting to A-ha’s pioneering EV days and influence in that tiny Panda.
Fiat itself went on to introduce an all-electric ‘Elettra’ version of the original Panda in 1990 (possibly inspired by A-ha’s converted example), of which today’s newly-launched 500 is a direct descendant. At the time, Fiat set the goal of making its commitment to protecting the environment by transforming the standard Panda into an electric car, claiming to be the world’s first major vehicle manufacturer to produce such an EV. The 24PS (18kW) Panda Elettra might have been years ahead of the EV competition, but for its time it was too heavy, slow and costly to be a commercial success, and production stopped in 1998. That’s long before Norway, plus the rest of the world, had learned to ‘Take On EV’. Groan!