Vikings Drive Electrically: Norway Fully Committed to Zero-Emission Drives for the Future

Hanover, Germany, February 25, 2022. Almost 240,000 islands.¹ More than 1,000 fjords.² Over 2,000 waterfalls.³ 200,000 moose.⁴ Up to eleven meters of snow per season.⁵ And one of the greenest capitals in the world. Norway is a country of superlatives. But in one area, the small Scandinavian country has a particularly clear lead over the big players: electric mobility. This is not a miracle, but a strategy: For 30 years, the purchase of e-cars has been promoted, first by private organizations, then by the government. More than 98 percent⁶ of the electricity comes from hydroelectric and wind power plants – green electricity is often cheaper in Scandinavia than gas or diesel. Norway also has the greatest ambitions for the phase-out deadline: no new cars and light trucks with combustion engines are to be sold by 2025 at the latest. And in 2021, more than 60 percent⁷ of newly registered cars had all-electric powertrains. The bottom line is that, with 81 electric vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants⁸, the Viking heirs outrank the rest of the world – Germany, for example, comes in at just a tenth of that figure. The conditions are therefore perfect for the transformation to sustainable and low-emission mobility.

Are they? Because actually, the weather conditions in a country where it can get as cold as minus 40 degrees Celsius⁹ in winter are not at all ideal for the technology used for eMobility. To ensure that the highly sensitive battery can nevertheless retain its full performance capability – whether cold or warm – Continental's engineers have to entirely rethink temperature management in the vehicle.

The most important property for lines in electrically driven vehicles: absolute impermeableness under all external influences, such as temperature differences in cold winters or mechanical influences caused by driving itself. This is because a mixture of water and a coolant such as glycol flows through the pipes and hoses. Electric vehicles are also increasingly using alternatives such as dielectric fluids. Therefore, the materials used must also have the appropriate chemical resistance. Traditionally, rubber materials such as ethylene-propylene-diene rubbers (EPDM) were used for flexible hoses, while aluminum or steel were used for the more stable tubular elements. Today, peroxide-crosslinked rubber compounds are increasingly being replaced by thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), and other polyamide, polypropylene or polyphenylene sulfide plastics (PA, PP and PPS for short) are taking the place of aluminum and steel. Depending on the individual requirements of the respective OEM, these materials can also be combined with each other for the optimum solution and connected via appropriate connectors.

In this context, the cooperation with the manufacturers may well have different focal points. For example, the design ideas of established OEMs are often already very detailed and concrete, so time tends to be invested in the development and approvals of various material options. In the eMobility sector, however, Continental also works with many start-ups that give engineers more design freedom and rely on its expertise when it comes to selecting materials for hoses, tubes, and the like.