EV charging in Iceland / Chargers for electric cars
Now that electric cars have a reasonable range, driving around the ring road is no issue anymore. Therefore, some information for tourists (and Icelanders new to EV charging) who want to use an electric vehicle (EV) in Iceland and want to know how the charging situation is. Basically, the charging infrastructure is as follows:
- ON (the former Reykjavik utilities company): Across Iceland, the most dense and most powerful charging points (High-Performance Chargers with Alpitronic chargers, some old 50 kW tripple chargers and AC chargers: some with fixed Type 1 and Type 2 cables, some with the usual Type 2 plug), you can spot them easily as they are orange. See their map. They issue their own RFID charging keys, but you need an Icelandic ID number ("kennitala") for it, so no chance to get these as a tourist. Luckily, the Plugsurfing key works as well (I can confirm that the key works), but the Plugsurfing app does not work as well, so for sure, you need an Plugsurfing RFID key/cars. In case of problems at the charging station, do not hesitate to call ON 24/7 hotline (they are very helpfull), e.g. to make them restart a fast charger.
- Ísorka: they mainly offer owners of AC chargers to take care of the finances, i.e. the chargers are not owned and operated by Ísorka. As such, the costs of AC charging are decided by the owners of each charging point. In addition, Ísorka has also a few fast chargers (using their blue-white design). See their map. You should not need an Ísorka RFID key as the Ísorka app works typically always. In addition, Ísorka is part of the Virta network, so Virta-related keys and apps should work as well (not tried, though).
(There was some controversy around Ísorka when they filed a complaint against ON which did lead to that while the complaint was processed, ON had to shut-down curb-side AC chargers on which many EV owners relied on. First, Ísorka denied that the shut-down was due them filing a complaint, but later it came out that the opposite was true. ON tried to act in the interest of EV owners who relied on these chargers owners by making then charging for free, but again Ísorka complained about this as their point was not that ON were not allowed to make money, but rather about ON installing the chargers, instead of Ísorka or other competitors installing the chargers via a Europe-wide competition. Once the complaint was processed, it was confirmed that the shut-down would not have been necessary. ON celebrated later that the ruling was finally in their favour by making use of these chargers for free for a couple of days.) - Stoppustuð: Sometimes, you find (in particular on the country-side) some purple chargers marked STOPPUSTUÐ. These charging points where once given by the company Orkusalan for free to, e.g., municipalities. It is up to the municipalities how much they cost, but typically, they are for free (but some do not work at all as no one maintains them). Often, you still need whatever RFID chip (could be, e.g., you Plugsurfing key/card or anything else that has RFID) to start and then use the same RFID to end the charging session and release the charging cable. Most Stoppustuð are listed on Plugshare (which is anyway from the crowd-sourced maps the one mainly one used in Iceland).
- N1: A gas station operator that started offering EV charging by taking over old 50 kW fast chargers from ON (when N1 terminated the rental contract based on which ON was able to set up fast chargers at N1 gas stations) and painting them in red. See their map. Some of them are for free, others require to pay: either using the N1 card (that also works for gas) or AFAIK (I never tried) the chargers might even take ordinary credit cards. Sometimes, people complain that the chargers are unreliable and when they called the N1 hotline, people claimed that this was not helpful.
- Of course, there is Tesla with Superchargers (in contrast to other countries, they are sill Tesla-only at time of writing) and destination chargers (those who do not know it: if there is only one destination charger, it is Tesla-only, but if there are more, then the others are also for non-Tesla EVs).
- In addition, some guesthouses have their own AC chargers for their guests.
In general, finding a 50 kW charger is not a problem (often, these are ABB tripple chargers, where it is often possible to use Type 2 AC charging in parallel to either CHAdeMO and Type 2 CCS). Typically, there is only one 50 kW charger at a place, i.e. you may have to wait for it to get free. High-Performance Chargers are just slowly being added, but the ones operated by ON come typically as twins, i.e. two chargers are installed and in addition, these are the modular Alpitronic chargers that have two or three 75 kW modules, and if one car uses only 75 kW, then you can charger another car in parallel with 75 kW. As always, leaving a phone number visible in the car to be reachable while charging is a good practise.
For those coming with their EV via the ferry: the first AC charging point (Stoppustöð) is on the camping ground in Seyðisfjörður and the first fast chargers in Egilstaðir ((N1 and Tesla, see Plugshare map -- but ON has just announced to improve in Egilstaðir where they have currently only AC chargers) and your car has to climb a mountain pass to reach Egilstaðir. Note that there is no electrical power grid along the ring road between Egilstaðir and lake Mývatn that would supply enough power to operate a fast charger, so take this into account.
The Westfjords are not covered well by ON, so again, have a look at at Plugshare for the available fast chargers offered by others.
Of course, also Iceland suffers from the bad habit of dinosaur-blood consuming ICE cars (and even EVs not charging) blocking EV chargers. Unfortunately, you can only request legally to get them towed away if they are marked with an official sign (which is typically not the case).