Tom Sjolund has just returned from a trip to visit his family in Finland and Sweden, and he agreed to share his experience with CleanTechnica readers. You may remember Tom from this article. In Australia, he drives a Volvo EX30. Since we don’t hear much about Finland, and the main thing we hear about Sweden is the ongoing IG Metall union strike against Tesla, we thought it worth an article. CleanTechnica reports that Sweden has achieved over 65% penetration of plugs-ins in the new car market. I was looking forward to hearing Tom’s experience first-hand.
Tom relaxing after his first tow with the Volvo EX30 in Queensland. Photo courtesy Tom Sjolund
Tom tells me that EVs are everywhere. Even the taxi that picked him and his family up from airport in Helsinki (Finland) was battery electric. A Mercedes no less. “In fact, I would say half of the taxis were EVs, with many being Teslas.” On the drive to the hotel, he took note of the electrified transport — trams and buses. In both Finland and Sweden, he travelled by fast electric trains (Snabb Tag), achieving speeds up to 200 km/hour.
In conversations with one taxi driver, Tom was told, “one driver had a Tesla and an EX40, sorry to say he preferred the Volvo and let his other driver have the Tesla. Our AirBnB host in Stockholm had a Tesla S performance which he loved, our AirBnB host up in the north had a Kia EV which he charged at home (power is free during the day there). He took us for a 2-hour tourist drive around the area, lakes and conservation parks.”
Did he notice any differences between EVs in Sweden and Finland? “Sweden and Finland have similar uptake of EVs. It seems a lot of people in Finland go over to some of the Baltic countries to buy their EVs (less tax I think). I would say Teslas were most popular, followed by German & Swedish brands. Volvo is very popular, particularly the EX30 and EX40.”
In his “hometown” of Ostersund in Sweden, he found that all the bus services in the area are battery electric and run nearly 24/7 at 20-minute intervals. “I saw a lot of busses branded Volvo, but it appears Scania has entered the market now.”
“During a walk along the strand of the lake there are a lot of cafes and eateries. I saw a delivery truck there, which had a huge sign saying 100% electric. I asked the driver about the truck. He said, I love it, so quiet, vibration free and so easy to drive, I just love it!” Tom isn’t sure, but thought the van was a BYD.
BEV delivery truck. Photo courtesy Tom Sjolund
Tom’s next stay was at “Gavle” on the Baltic coast, near the famous city of Uppsala. “We stayed at an Airbnb in a small traditional cabin next to a small river. This river starts in the mountains some 125 km away. Along its way are a number of weirs with attached small power stations. During the snow melt in spring, the lakes/river systems release water which powers small generators, which adds to the electrical power for each community along its course. In total, it produces 63 GWh of power during the year, a huge amount.”
Weirs for hydropower. Photo courtesy Tom Sjolund
“Here I also met a delivery van driver for DHL with an EV van. He was so enthusiastic about it and said the local company was hoping to be fully electric in the next couple of years. Best van he had ever driven.”
While staying in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, Tom noted that once again the buses were BEVs. “It was so nice to be able to walk down streets in the middle of the city without cars and noise and with just clean air, which is a lot different from going into Brisbane city centre where you choke on all the diesel fumes and your ears hurt from all the traffic noise.”
City without fumes and noise. Photo courtesy Tom Sjolund.
“In Sweden all food scraps go into collection bins and get delivered to a biodigester along with other organic material. This produces methane which is compressed and used for fuel for the busses.”
Uppsala was much like Stockholm, hardly any cars in city streets, quiet and peaceful.
Compost Bins used to collect matter to create biogas. Photo courtesy Tom Sjolund.
On the trip home, Tom engaged in conversation with some executives from the Scania truck company who were attending a sustainability conference at the hotel where Tom was staying. Scania has both short-haul and long-distance electric models. They told him that Scania is planning for 50% of their production to be battery electric trucks in the near future.
Being the curious sort, I did some googling and found this great article on the progress of the rEVolution in Finland from the Helsinki Times. I was excited to find that over 50% of new car sales in Finland now come with plug! And that total fleet penetration has reached 11% of Finland’s fleet. As of April 2025, 33.8% of new cars are BEVs and 21.6% are PHEVs, a significant improvement over 2024. There are now more than 300,000 plugin vehicles on Finnish roads. “Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, sales of electrified vehicles have remained resilient.”
“Finnish consumers are doing the maths,” said Tuukka Heikkilä, expert on electric transport at Energy Industry Finland. “With Finland having the third-cheapest electricity in Europe, switching to electric driving makes both climate and financial sense. In 2024, the average price of taxed electricity between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. was under three cents per kilowatt hour.”
Ninety-five percent of Finland’s domestic electricity production is carbon neutral. The country is aiming for a rapid electrification of road transport to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollutants. Energy Industry Finland expects continued strong interest in electric vehicles throughout 2025 as several manufacturers offer new BEV vehicles for under 30,000 euros. This is less than the cost of imported used cars. Charging infrastructure continues to expand.
According to Dr Google, in 2023, nuclear energy provided 42% of the country’s total electricity generation, followed by hydropower at 19% and wind power at 18%. That’s according to the IEA (International Energy Agency). Biofuels and waste also contribute significantly, making up 13%. That’s almost 100%!
Tom saw lots of public charging in Finland. “Not surprising, as, after all, they make the second-best chargers in the world and it seems they are being exported to Australia as well. Sweden is rolling out more fast chargers, a lot are in service stations, 20kW chargers are common at accommodation sites.” He was referring of course to Kempower.
Tom and his family are now planning a trip from Rockhampton to Kangaroo Island in Victoria in his EX30 towing a little caravan. It’s a mere 5,000 km round trip. He started planning before he went to Sweden (5 months ago), and checking the route now, he is amazed at how many more options there are due to the increase in the number of fast chargers on the inland route he plans to take. Things are changing rapidly on the home front. It won’t be long and we will be on par with Finland in a bright and electric future.
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