Hi All. I have returned from my Norway vacation and wanted to share with you some lessons I learned during the trip with regards to the rental car experience. Please note, that this was my first time renting an electric car so some of you with more experience may have better tips than me.
1) As stated earlier, renting a car in Norway is very expensive. The best way to get the lowest price is to monitor the Auto Europe website almost daily because prices fluctuate. During a single month, I saw my 10-day rental price range between $1350-$3500. Also, don’t be afraid to make a reservation because you see a low price. If the price drops lower later, it is easy to cancel the original reservation and rebook. I did this three times without issue. Just remember to watch your credit card statement to make sure you get your refund.
2) Electric cars are about half the price to rent than gas cars.
3) When returning a gas vehicle, you are required to return it full unless you want to be charged an extra fee. The definition of returning an electric vehicle “full” means at least 75% charge remains (according to Hertz)
4) Norway uses cameras on their roadways to bill your rental company for road tolls and some ferry tolls; there are no toll booths
5) Charging stations are not equal, where charging a car approximately 50% can take anywhere from 4.5 hours to only 45 minutes
6) There are many charging station companies in Norway, thus when I needed a charge, I would have to download another app on my phone, create an account and give them my credit card. I did this SIX times!
7) Tesla chargers can be used to charge VW cars and are the quickest. After I discovered this, I sought out these chargers as much as possible. The Tesla app is excellent, providing directions to the closest charging stations and the number of chargers currently available. If all chargers are in use, it will tell you how long the wait is in the queue for the next available charger.
8) Just because a hotel says it has a charging station, it doesn’t mean it has a good one. At one location, the charging station was nothing more than just a standard home electrical outlet
9) Charging a car is much cheaper than gas. For example, the typical gas price was around $8/gal so filling a 12-gallon tank would cost just under $100. To fully charge an electric car from essentially zero would cost about $40
10) You have to accept a certain amount of stress with an electric vehicle for road trips, because even if you are conservative and look for a charger when just below 40%, unless there is a fast charger like a Tesla station close by, you won’t know how long it will take to charge the car, thus I recommend making sure each destination is less than one charge distance. This way, you will have a day (or two) to get into a queue and charge a vehicle while you are sightseeing.
With all this said, you might ask yourself whether it is worth all this effort to rent an electric car in Norway. I can tell you with 100% confidence, it was worth every penny (if you can afford it). We saw sights that we would never have seen with public transportation. I have traveled extensively across Western and Central Europe and the USA’s National Parks, and when we saw the Norwegian fjords, the countless waterfalls, the majestic mountains, and the glaciers, it made me believe Norway is one of the most beautiful countries on Earth. I told my wife, when I die, if there is heaven, I would want it to look like Norway.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Rick
