Two Norwegian EV organizations are planning what organizers hope to be the biggest gathering of EVs in one place at the same time, with more than 225 needed to set a new world record. Alongside the customers taking part, Oslo city council will be receiving 1,000 electric vehicles to add to its municipal fleet over the next three years — a great number of which will include the Nissan LEAF.
The event, which starts from Maridalen in outer Oslo and finishes outside Oslo's Town Hall, on August 31, requires all the cars to be moving at the same time over a 5 km section of a prescribed route. Monitoring of the attempt will be carried out by a pair of camera-carrying drone aircraft.
Although open to all electric vehicles, it is expected that the Nissan LEAF will make up the majority of the participating cars, according to organizers. Everyone joining the attempt will be given an official certificate of participation.
The Nissan LEAF is among Norway’s most popular EVs and is regularly in the country's top five best-selling cars each month, according to the automaker. One of its major attractions - available only through Nissan dealers - is the special Nordic Pack, developed to tackle the country's harsh winters. As well as the expected heated front and rear seats, steering wheel, door mirrors and headlamp washers, the Nordic Pack includes a battery heater to counter the extreme low temperatures.
The Nordic pack has been specially engineered for Europe's coldest region as Senior Nissan LEAF Development Engineer, Tom McCabe explained: "Most of Europe experiences cold weather, but Norway and the rest of the Nordic region experiences persistently very low temperatures every winter. For this reason we engineered an automatic battery heater to ensure customers had the best experience of the car even at extreme low temperatures. This is fitted alongside the features normally found in the 'cold pack' in other countries, but only the Nordic pack cars get the specially designed heater."
According to Nissan, Norway continues to be a world leader of zero-emission mobility with more than 3,900 EVs sold in 2012, accounting for 2.9 percent of the country's total new passenger car market. Despite Norway's comparatively small size, the country has a comprehensive recharging network with more than 3,500 public charging posts and 100 fast chargers.
EV ownership in Norway has a number of incentives that encourage the use of the alt-fuel vehicles, including exemption from sales tax, free city center parking and even the ability to drive in bus lanes.
