A clear sky. Low 63F. Winds light and variable..

A clear sky. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.

Charging your electric car in Norway sometimes comes with spectacular views. Tony Bartelme/Staff

A Mer charging station that enabled an American visitor to charge his rental car. Tony Bartelme/Staff

Charging your electric car in Norway sometimes comes with spectacular views. Tony Bartelme/Staff

Oil-rich Norway, oddly, is the world’s leader in electric car adoption.

Last year, nearly 9 out of 10 vehicles sold in this Nordic country of 5.5 million people were electric or plug-in hybrids. Norway plans to phase out sales of new fossil fuel vehicles altogether by 2025. It already has about 500,000 electric vehicles on its roads. And it has about 17,000 public charging stations, the highest density in Europe.

So, I was excited to rent an electric car during a recent vacation. Even so, a question lingered as I made the reservation: Would I have range anxiety?

After a week driving through the country’s famous fjords, I have an answer: Yes, but not in the way I expected.

Range anxiety is the fear of running out of power mid-trip. It’s one of the biggest barriers to widespread acceptance of electric vehicles, customer surveys have found. And it’s a concern even though car manufacturers have steadily packed more miles into battery packs. A decade ago, the median range was about 70 miles for a fully charged vehicle. Today, the median is about 240 miles, with some models exceeding 300 miles per charge.

In Bergen, Norway, I chose a Volkswagen ID.4, which Hertz said had 322 miles of range. Off we went toward the fjords.

The VW performed well on the winding roads, some of which narrowed to one lane and created occasional games of chicken with oncoming cars. I appreciated the ID.4's quiet motors. It was no Tesla, but it was responsive and fun to drive. I loved the freedom of driving past gas stations where a gallon cost more than $8.

That first day we drove about 120 miles from Bergen to the Stalheim Hotel, which overlooks a spectacular fjord. The hotel had three plugs for electric cars. Range anxiety? Not here, I thought, as I plugged the VW’s portable charger into the socket.

But nothing happened. The VW’s charging light turned red. No juice. The car’s display didn’t say what was wrong. The hotel receptionist shrugged. Perhaps there was something funky with the hotel’s electrical system? No matter, I still had a couple hundred miles of range left to find a public charging station.

I found one next morning in the village of Flam, which sits at the end of a fjord that's normally surrounded by waterfalls. It had been dry for a week, and they weren't flowing now. I would experience a similar absence of flow with the village's public chargers. I plugged in but got the same red light. No juice. The charging station had instructions, but they were in Norwegian. Then a light bulb. In my head, not the car. I realized I needed a phone app to connect to that charger.

I downloaded one, but it too was in Norwegian. I spent another half hour trying to register my email and credit card. Still no good. Another company had chargers nearby. Its app required a Norwegian phone number. I gave up and hoped our next hotel would have a working plug.

It didn’t. “But there’s a really fast station a few minutes away,” the hotel clerk said.

The battery was hovering just above 30 percent by now. Would we have to leave the car on the side of the road? Find an Uber back to Bergen?

A Mer charging station that enabled an American visitor to charge his rental car. Tony Bartelme/Staff

This time, I did my homework. I identified the operator of the charging station, a company called Mer. I downloaded Mer's app and confirmed my registration with an email instead of a phone number. I set off as a full moon rose above Sognefjord, the nation's longest and deepest fjord. At the grocery store, I plugged in and cranked up the Mer app. Boom. It worked! My range anxiety drained as the VW’s battery filled.

It took about an hour to top off. As I waited, I thought about the challenges of charging electric vehicles. Imagine if BP, Shell, Exxon, Circle K and other fueling stations required their own dedicated apps to fill up? Well, that's exactly what's happening in Norway and the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy Department lists at least 20 different charging networks here, with some only reserved for Tesla.

So, waiting there by the Norwegian grocery store, I realized that I didn’t have range anxiety. I had app anxiety.

I never did figure out the other charging companies’ apps, so I chose routes where I might find Mer stations. All told, I drove 512 miles and spent about $98 on electricity. Had I had a comparable gas-powered car, I would have forked out at least $150 for gas.

Would I rent an electric car again in a foreign country? Maybe. But first I’d do some research on that country’s charging network. I’d set up the apps before I left.

Perhaps these are minor speed bumps. But electrification of transportation is one of the key ways human beings can reduce greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. And the fewer speed bumps we have, the faster that will happen.

I had one last app anxiety attack before I turned in the car. Hertz said it wanted the car back with the battery full, just as it typically requires for gas-powered cars. It’s usually no big deal to top off your tank with gas. But what about an electric car? 

At the airport in Bergen, I was heartened to see a parking lot full of chargers. Then my heart sank when I realized I needed another company’s app. The battery was at 86 percent. I thought about the cliché about perfection being the enemy of the good and headed for the Hertz return lot, anxiety levels moving back to normal.

Reach Tony Bartelme at 843-790-0805

Tony Bartelme, senior projects reporter for The Post and Courier, has earned national honors from the Nieman, Scripps, Loeb and National Press foundations and is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Twitter: @tbartelme 843-790-0805

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