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HyNor, Officially Open for Business

Norway is taking giant leaps, compared to other countries, into becoming Europe's most environmentally friendly country, in the automotive segment, at least. While Think City Car, the Norwegian built electric vehicle, keeps demolishing old habits and preconceptions, Norway itself has finished the work on the HyNor project and declared it open on Monday.

The name stands for a piece of highway, stretching some 580 kilometers, in between Stavanger and Oslo. The highway can be travelled by means of hydrogen powered cars not as much because it is legal, but mostly because it offers the opportunity for refueling. The highway will be part of an entire network of similar Scandinavian roads, motori.corriere.it reported.

What's so special about it is that along the 580 kilometers, 12 hydrogen refueling stations, owned by StatoilHydro, have solved a big problem for hydrogen powered cars: autonomy. As Anne Marit Hansen, President of the HyNor project said, the purpose of the highway is to encourage the use of hydrogen for propulsion means, instead of gasoline.

The opening of the highway was done by Liv Signe Navarsete, Norway's transportation minister. The first alternative powered cars to take to the new highway were the ones who took part in the EV Viking Rally.

As you must know by now, Norway is at the forefront of the green battle. The Norwegians have even gone as far as trying to submit a bill which will ban new gasoline powered cars from being registered in the country starting 2015.

Even if the law itself has not drawn many supporters, the idea itself stands as a statement of how Norway sees the roads of tomorrow. Roads whose first 580 kilometers were open on Monday.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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