Uses two hours of the working day to charge. – There will be a charging crisis

Taxi driver Amer Latif has to visit three gas stations to find an available fast charger. He believes that the charging situation will get worse when all taxis must become emission-free next year.

– Sometimes I have to use two hours of the working day to charge the car. First I have to stand in a charging queue for over an hour. And then it takes around three quarters of an hour to charge the car, says Amer Latif.

The working day as a taxi driver starts at seven o’clock. Then he drives from the home in Hellerud to Stovner. At dawn, he will drive eight school children and a disabled adult. When the trips are done, he has to charge the big Toyota.

– If I had charged the car at home, it would have taken over four hours. That is why I and many other professional drivers with electric cars depend on fast chargers. But charging there is problematic due to large queues. When it was cold, the queues were extra long, because the heat drains the battery in a shorter time than usual. It also took longer to charge.

At 11 o’clock on Friday, he drives by Circle K on Ila, but there are already two drivers in the charging queue. From there the trip goes to Økern, but there is also a queue of electric cars that need electricity. Then the trip goes to Circle K in Trosterud. There are 20 charging points. Two of these are vacant.

– Even in the middle of the day, I spent half an hour finding a free charging space. I have several times turned down long trips to Drøbak or Drammen because I don’t have enough electricity. You can’t have customers in the back of the car and stop for an hour and a half to charge.

To illustrate the problem, he swings by one gas station at Tveita and one at Ensjø. None of these have free charging capacity.

New requirements for taxis

In a decision from the city council, it is stated that all taxis in Oslo must be zero-emission vehicles from 1 November 2024. After the release of taxis in 2020, the number of taxi licenses has increased from 1,800 to over 5,000. It is unclear how many of these are electric cars. Latif believes that there will be a big wave of electric cars in the taxi industry in the coming months.

– I fear that the waiting time for charging will be longer in the coming months. Because it is not just taxis, but also more electric vans, which are on the way. There will be a charging crisis in 2024, Latif believes.

Electrician Erik Mikkelstrup also wants more fast chargers.

– Sometimes it takes an hour before I get charged. On average, the waiting time is 20-30 minutes. And then it can take up to 40 minutes to charge the car, says Mikkelstrup.

He lives in Ski and works in Oslo. Some days he has to drive 20 miles a day. Charging the work car at home would take six to seven hours.

– The range of the car is 230 km, but as soon as I turn on the heat, it drops considerably. That’s why I have to charge during the working day, says Erik Mikkelstrup.

Received positive signals

Communication manager Unni Berge at the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association thinks an hour’s wait in a charging queue sounds far too much.

– An hour in the charging queue for a taxi or electric van in Oslo is too much. Those who choose an environmentally friendly solution deserve a shorter charging time. Therefore, Oslo must build more fast chargers in the future, says Berge.

Figures from the association show that there are 417 rapid chargers in Oslo today. 100 of these were established in 2023. So to speak, all were built by private actors.

– It shows that it is commercially profitable to build fast chargers. And that it is possible to build at a fast pace. The problem is often finding places where they can be built. Here, the municipality can make better arrangements. I note that the new city council has said that they will do it, so there are positive signals, says Berge.

Have met the taxi industry

Department director Kaisa Froyn in the City Environment Agency (BYM) writes in an email that since 2016, the municipality has, in collaboration with private fast charger operators, contributed to establishing charging spaces reserved for electric taxis and for all electric drivers in general.

– At charging stations reserved for taxis, there has been lower occupancy compared to charging stations in the same location that are open to all electric drivers. At charging stations for taxis, there is usually a lot of free capacity and little queuing, writes Froyn.

She adds that the municipality has its own support scheme for taxi owners who want to install their own charging boxes at home. The municipality is also working to offer more municipal street chargers, which can also be used by taxi owners and van owners who lack their own parking space.

Oslo’s new transport council, Marit Kristine Vea (V), recently had her first meeting with the taxi industry. A lack of capacity for fast charging was an issue there.

– We have little time to reach the climate targets, and the city council is in the process of tightening the climate policy to reduce climate emissions in Oslo. Road traffic accounts for more than 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the city, and therefore the conversion to electric cars is important. We know that access to enough charging options is key, and will therefore have a large-scale investment in charging going forward, says Vea.

She adds that several taxi owners have received grants to set up charging stations at home.

– This arrangement has become very popular. Now we will look at other solutions that will make charging even easier.