Tesla-loving Norway wants commercial electric flights by 2028

Avinor, a state-owned company that operates the country's airports, say the short test flight will demonstrate the feasibility of pollution-free aviation.

Emission targets

Western Europe's largest exporter of oil and gas has pledged to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 40 per cent by 2030.

About half of all new cars sold there are electric (Germany only recently leapfrogged Norway as Europe's biggest market for electric cars), and battery-powered ferry boats are also being built.

The thrust to electric planes should cut emissions further, though environmentalists are sceptical.

"The growth in both Norwegian and international aviation is one of the big drivers of climate change, which is completely out of control," said Truls Gulowsen, head of Greenpeace in Norway.

"Even if there's a small chance that we'll be able to get some small electric aircraft in the air covering short distances, there's no indication that we'll be able to replace today's medium and long haul distances with electric propulsion."

That message fails to resonate with Wideroe, which likens what's happening in the aviation industry to the rapid transformation now under way in the automobile industry.

"Those who need to drive fossil fuelled cars will still buy these cars, but (the industry's) total emissions are nevertheless coming down," Wideroe's Nilsen said. "We must have a similar view for the aviation industry."

Electric future

Norwegian Air ASA, Norway's largest airline and Europe's third-largest low-cost carrier, has already expanded its fleet with fuel-efficient aircraft, such as the Boeing 737 MAX.

But like other major airlines it has no plans to go electric until the technology matures.

"When electric aircraft are able to replace today's commercial machines, we will of course be interested," spokesman Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen said.

Wideroe is far more ambitious. It currently operates 40 Bombardier Dash 8 turboprop planes and carries 2.8 million passengers each year. It wants to replace its entire fleet with electric planes by 2030.

"We have reached out to manufacturers to motivate them to create an aircraft designed for Norway with a new technological platform," the CEO said.

One of those manufacturers is Zunum Aero, a Boeing-backed start-up that plans to deliver its first hybrid-electric plane to JetSuite in 2022. The plane will have a range of 700 miles and seat up to 12 passengers.

"When large research and development resources move in the same direction, things tend to move fast," Stein Nilsen said.

But creating an aircraft that will withstand the unapologetic weather conditions of northern Norway may pose a challenge.

"We don't see any technological barriers that will make this impossible to achieve," Nilsen said.

Bloomberg