To follow up on yesterdays note where I claimed that the incumbent players in the market typically not are the fastest when it comes to developing disruptive new technologies, it is quite interesting to see that Norway, that never was much of a threat when it comes to the car industry previously now is one of the leading nations when it comes to developing electric cars. There are two different companies developing electric cars that have received a lot of international interest. One of them is Think the other one is Miljøbil Grenland which was recently acquired by Indian Tata Group.
But there we have it. Norway doesn’t have any legacy like Sweden when it comes to supporting the incumbent car companies. And the car companies themselves, they obviously don’t have any legacy of petrol driven cars to manage.
What then about Tata group, don’t they have a traditional car background? Well, Tata is a completely different story alltogether which will be the subject some other time.
See you around.
4 Comments
Miljøbil Grenland is actually more of an importer – the second manufacturer of elecric cars in Norway is Kewet (which started in Denmark in 1992, went bankrupt and was moved to Norway in 1999. They are a most familiar sight in Oslo. http://www.kewet.no. Norway also have some nice laws favouring electric cars, such as no taxes (amazing), free tollway passage (just like motorbikes), free parking and best of all, you can drive in the bus lanes! The millionaires living outside town all come zooming into Oslo in a Buddy – in the bus lanes…
J:-)N
Thanks for your correction Jon!
And of course the insightful comments regarding the supporting incentives too. It is very important to understand, that most countries have different types of support systems for cleantech development. But the support systems look very different, creating a very heterogenous market: electric cars in Norway, wind power in Denmark, solar power in Germany, etc.
/Niclas
Even here in Africa we have incentives for going green. In Kenya, there are no import duties or VAT for solar energy products. Plus, we have carbon credits – and finally, about three times more solar energy than northern Europe.
Currently, Germany uses about half the solar panels in the world, even if they have limited solar resources and nobody off the grid. In Africa, more than 90% are off the grid and have no electricity. How about relocating the solar panels from Germany (backed by huge feed-inn subsidies) and move them to villages in Africa – where they would be infinately more useful…
J:-)N
I agree Jon, that shift would be meaningful. And, I believe it is happening. I don’t know if you are familiar with Grameen Shakti, the technology arm of Grameen Bank. They have a number of solutions for rural, off grid situations. They work both with solar panels, with biogas and other means of providing energy to rural areas, financed through micro credits. I believe that is the way to go. Micro credits are very effective in these situations, and the payback is usually very good for these types of solutions. Another interesting and rapidly growing financing solution that may come into play for this type of solutions is MyC4. http://www.myc4.com/ Micro-financing of the internet age. And they are actually focused on Africa.
/Niclas