CMS Guide to Electric Vehicles

Interest in EVs has waxed and waned over the years, but the last ten years have seen a momentous surge in the market, which appears set to transform the automotive industry.

The International Energy Association (“IEA”) has examined this market growth in its recent report entitled “Global EV Outlook 2017: Two million and counting”. In here it cites the following headline statistics:

• The global electric car stock surpassed 2m vehicles in 2016, although in reality the majority of sales are only taking place in a limited number of countries.
• A new record of registrations of EVs was achieved in 2016, with over 750,000 sales worldwide.
• China was by far the largest market in 2016, accounting for 336,000 of the EVs registered in 2016. This was more than double the number of registrations in the US, the second largest market.
• In terms of market share, Norway is incontestably the global leader with 29% of its total passenger light duty vehicle (“PLDV”) sales being registered as EVs. China’s vast EV stock constitutes only 1.5% of its total PLDV sales. These were two of only six countries to achieve an electric car market share of above 1% of their total PLDV sales.

However, there has been a slowdown in market growth rates in recent years which has been linked to the removal of government subsidies. Whilst it was expected that, in-line with all emerging markets, growth rates would ultimately inevitably decline, the EV market still seems a million miles away from the potential scale it could achieve, with EVs representing just 0.2% of the total number of PLDVs in circulation globally.

CMS Guide to Electric Vehicles.