Electric flop: buses in Oslo break down in the cold
100 million euros in the sand - or snow. That is the sad result of the first onset of winter in Oslo. After the city invested this enormous sum in new electric buses in the spring, they have now simply broken down in the cold. Instead of emission-free local transport, the city has thrown a lot of money down the drain. It remains to be seen what the manufacturer Solaris will now do to avert the debacle.
It's an unrivalled scandal! The city of Oslo has spent 100 million euros on fancy new electric buses to make local transport emission-free. The problem is that the buses broke down at the first onset of winter. The first snowflakes have fallen and the luxury buses are already out of service. You would think that people in the far north would be prepared for something like this. Unfortunately not.
Solaris has delivered 183 of the smart new electric buses to the city of Oslo. They had been in use on the city's busiest routes since April 2023 and had indeed made local public transport emission-free. A great job until the winter. But nobody seemed to have considered that it sometimes gets cold in Norway - very cold, in fact.
Now the buses shine in a smart new design, but they can't drive. This is because the batteries fail in the freezing cold, the range is drastically reduced and the buses are empty faster than you can say "zero emissions". In fact, around 140 departures had to be cancelled. The buses should actually have a range of 250 kilometres.
So it really makes you shake your head. A lot of money is invested in a great, environmentally friendly idea, and then the technology fails at the first challenge. Electromobility is supposed to be the future, but if the future can't cope with the local climate, then we have a problem. In any case, the technology doesn't seem to be really mature yet.
We can only hope that Solaris finds a solution quickly, otherwise the expensive electric buses will be standing around uselessly all winter. And the citizens of Oslo? For better or worse, they will have to fall back on the old, reliable diesel buses.
This is how electric mobility becomes a laughing stock!