Was Oslo paralysed after all of its electric buses broke down due to the cold?

Is Oslo, one of the world's leading green cities in terms of emissions, currently at a standstill because all of its electric buses have broken down? 

Let's take a look. 

Allegedly, cold weather in Norway is severely affecting the vehicles’ range and battery life, according to multiple social media users and international tabloids.

"The cold has paralysed the new electric bus fleet in Oslo. That's millions just sitting idle due to -7 to -14 Celcius temperature," tweeted one account.

"Another electric bus failure. They can’t run below -11C! 320 buses taken out of commission," quipped another user.

Other articles claimed more than 140 bus departures have been affected in the Scandinavian capital daily since the start of December. 

Many online used the alleged incident to criticise Norway's goal to move away from diesel and petrol engines in the next two years. 

Euronews reached out to Ruter, the company that operates the electric buses in Oslo.

In an email, a spokesperson called the allegations “an extreme exaggeration…We cancelled, on average, between 50 and 100 departures, out of more than 4,000 daily departures, for a few days.”

The company did however admit they had a few “challenges with the range of the buses being shorter in cold weather."

"We solved this by changing the charging shifts. And also by fixing the charging infrastructure." 

Ruter claims the issues have since been fixed and the fleet of electric buses continues to run as usual. 

Cold weather impacts both the range of an electric vehicle (EV) - how far it can travel on a single charge - and also the charging time. 

"Every single engine system whether it's a battery or living beings like humans, doesn't function well in the cold. Internal combustion engines also have