Parking garages often aren’t very well-lit, and a video tour of one may not sound like a particularly enjoyable way to spend time.
But if you’re an electric-car driver or advocate in North America, an 11-minute tour by electric-car advocate (and Tesla fanatic) Bjørn Nyland may be time well spent.
That’s because his tour of the Vulkan parking garage in Oslo, Norway, shows off what may be the best-equipped parking facility in the world for electric cars.
DON’T MISS: Half of Norway’s new-car sales are now hybrids or electrics
Norway, of course, has taken the lead among the world’s nations in implementing policies to end retail sales of vehicles with combustion engines by 2025.
That’s its contribution to cutting emissions of climate-change gases in the country’s transportation sector, and the plan is well underway.
New-car sales in Norway recently crossed the 50-percent mark for electrified vehicles—hybrids, battery-electric cars, and plug-in hybrids—and electric cars may be more common on the streets of Oslo than anywhere outside Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
![Electric-car advocate Bjorn Nyland shows off Vulkan parking garage, Oslo, Norway [video, Mar 2017]](https://www.automobilebrand.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/electric-car-advocate-bjorn-nyland-shows-off-vulkan-parking-garage-oslo-norway-video-mar-2017_100596290_m.jpg "Electric-car advocate Bjorn Nyland shows off Vulkan parking garage, Oslo, Norway [video, Mar 2017]")
Electric-car advocate Bjorn Nyland shows off Vulkan parking garage, Oslo, Norway [video, Mar 2017]
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We found the video courtesy of CleanTechnica, which called the Vulkan garage’s 102 charging stations a “whopping” total. It’s hard to disagree.
The facility now has 100 Level 2 charging outlets, running in the European fashion in which electric-car drivers carry their own charging cords.
Those points now mostly run at 3.7 kilowatts, with a few at 22 kw, but Nyland says they’ll all be updated to provide 22 kw in the future.
READ THIS: Norway’s Goal: All New Cars Will Be Emission-Free By 2025 To Cut Carbon (Aug 2015)
The Vulkan site also has a pair of DC fast-charging spots, each with two cables: one for the CHAdeMO format used by Nissan Leafs and Mitsubishi i-MiEVs, the other for the Combined Charging Standard used by all U.S. makers except Tesla and all German makers.
Those DC fast-charging cables presently charge at 50 kilowatts, the current cap for both standards—though each is in the process of developing software and hardware to permit far higher rates in the future.
The garage can draw on up to 800 kw of power from its electricity supplier, meaning dozens of cars can charge at once.
Oslo street scene: Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen e-Golf, Tesla Model S, July 2015
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But it also has a battery pack with a capacity of 50 kilowatt-hours, which lets the control software for all its charging outlets balance load and even out spikes as needed.
The garage has installed the battery to permit future expansion to as much as 200 kwh of capacity.
Through the end of 2019, electric-car drivers can both park and charge for free, at the 3.7-kw rate, during non-business hours; the EuroPark app is required to gain access to parking and charging.
CHECK OUT: What can we learn from 100,000 electric-car owners in Norway? (Aug 2016)
The “charging-enabled parking structure” was the result of a partnership among Oslo’s municipal government, the property owner, and the provider of the charging system.
With sales of electric cars in Norway growing steadily, provision of charging infrastructure must keep pace, and shortages of charging stations are getting more frequent.
While it’s not clear exactly how many charging points would be needed if most of Oslo’s vehicles plug in, the city is now in effect a laboratory to answer that question.
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