EV rentals in Oslo?

Before: I recommend two articles of VisitNorway

• How to go on an EV road trip in Norway which answers some of your questions incl. links to charging maps
• Norway – the EV capital of the world

Heddal stave church (link to one of my photos) is a very interesting and impressive destination. I like to recommend some other interesting places around which I bundled to a scenic route Skien - Rjukan with recommendation to spend 2 days on this.

Am I responsible for returning the car fully charged?

Afaik this is defined in the contract and there are both options available.

I've never owned a car (though I do drive) or rented one in Europe, but I can tell you Norway is the only country where I've noticed a lot of charging stations without having had any reason to look for them. That doesn't mean they will always be around when you need them, but my guess is that they will be. Google Maps will plot them on a map for you so you can take a look and see what you think.

We rented a car from Hertz on our Norway vacation in 2023, an electric VW. It was our first time driving an EV, and was a bit of a learning experience.

Norway has promoted EV’s, and now has the highest per-capita EV ownership in the world, and I understand that 95% of cars sold now in Norway are electric. There are also lots of charging stations and terminals, but you can’t use many of them. Different stations belong to different charging networks, accessed by a mobile phone app. One gas station had EV chargers off on one side, and some were for one network, others for a different network, and others for still other networks. They were close together, and depending on how a driver positioned their vehicle at their charger, that could block someone else from accessing theirs. A truck blocked us at that station, but other stations had adequate spacing, and also weren’t as busy.

A hang tag on the rearview mirror of our car said that Hertz is partnered with the Elton network, so we downloaded the Elton app. I kept thinking about Elton John, but I doubt he’s affiliated with it. We tried downloading some other apps as well, but some are intended just for Norwegian residents, which obviously wasn’t going to apply to us. But that meant that we needed to find Elton-compatible charging stations (via the app), and not every station was compatible. That meant that we needed to anticipate how much battery life was left, and how many miles we had to reach the next station. We had a couple of close calls, passing lots of charging points that weren’t Elton, until we got to one, with not much charge left in the car. The dashboard display showed how much charge was left, just like a gas gauge shows how much fuel is in the tank of a gas-powered car. You don’t let an EV battery get too low (never below 10%), but you also don’t charge it too high - 90% is the maximum charge, which the dashboard and the charging machine will show you.

We linked a credit card to the Elton app, and paid through the app with each charge. You could call it a charge card - lol. Also, there’s fast charging and slow charging. Fast charging can take 20-40 minutes, using a higher power boost, which costs more. Slow charging can take forever. My guess is that EV owners who charge their cars at home use the slower system, charging a car overnight, but that wouldn’t apply to us. Charging machines offered both options, but if you have somewhere to go, pay for the faster charge and get on with your trip. It’s slower, though, than pumping gas. The car had two different sockets behind the “fuel” door, one for fast and one for slow, so we needed to use the right one.

Hertz said we were supposed to bring the car back fully charged, but it was actually only 70% charged when we picked it up, so came back with that much. There was a charging machine at the Hertz return garage (no app needed - just plug and go), so we plugged it in and it was at 100% before we left it. We both picked up and returned it in Bergen, not Oslo, for what that’s worth.

A couple other things that were different: hitting the “Start” button, the car made no sound, and it was occasionally hard to realize whether the car was running or not. The shifter was just a little lever, and it was counterintuitive to flick it forward for Reverse and back for Drive. That, and the charging process, took some getting used to.

Thanks for all the information - it sounds like Norway has provided a strong infrastructure for EVs! (I drive one in the States, so am familiar with how they work.) I’d be just using it for a short day trip (around 250 km) so would only need to recharge it just before returning. Good to know that Hertz is reliable and that the system (once apps are downloaded) works well.

Heddal is not that far away, so if you don't have to return the car fully charged you probably won't have to worry about charging. But charging stations are everywhere in Norway and electric cars are very common. And check with the rental companies, they might have different policies.

But, don't rent a car in Oslo. Start the trip by taking the train to e.g. Drammen and rent the car there. It can save you a bit of time, but more important is that it means you avoid the Oslo traffic.