Sales of electric vehicles to increase 66% this year to 5m units

• Electric vehicle sales up 39% in 2020 despite an overall 14% decline in car market.
• Number of EVs sold will rise to 30m in 2028 and EVs will represent nearly half of all passenger cars sold globally by 2030.
• Rapid growth will continue as more electric vehicles launch and governments set and maintain policies to stimulate EV production and sales.

Even though total passenger car market declined 14 per cent in 2020 due to Covid-19, sales of electric vehicles rose 30 per cent year on year to 3.1 million units.

Chris Jones, Chief Analyst for automotive at research firm Canalys, said that the strong demand for electric vehicles will continue this year and beyond.

Electric vehicles represented almost five per cent of all new car sales in 2020 and are forecast to reach over seven per cent of new car sales worldwide in 2021, a further 66 per cent growth, to exceed 5 million units sold.

Approximately 1.3 million EVs were sold in both China and Europe in 2020, four times the EV sales in the US.

“EV sales in the US represented just 2.4 per cent of new cars sold there, despite it being home to Tesla, the world’s leading EV manufacturer. Even policies from a more supportive US government won’t change things overnight,” Jones said.

Canalys forecasts that the number of EVs sold will rise to 30 million in 2028 and EVs will represent nearly half of all passenger cars sold globally by 2030.

“Rapid growth will continue as more electric vehicles launch and governments set and maintain policies to stimulate EV production and sales. Reducing ‘range anxiety’ with increases in performance and charging infrastructure will be vital to entice more buyers,” said Sandy Fitzpatrick, Vice-President at Canalys.

For example, Norway set a national goal that all new car sales by 2025 should be zero emission vehicles while other countries have announced similar targets for the electrification of their vehicle fleet, most within a timeframe between 2030 and 2050.

Recently, Delhi government in India plans to transfer subsidies for buying EV directly to the bank accounts of buyers by providing subsidies of up to Rs30,000 for two-wheelers and up to Rs150,000 for cars.

However, Fitzpatrick said that the automotive industry is currently facing crippling semiconductor shortages, so managing future supply chains and production systems to cope with the growth will be make or break for any electric vehicle strategies.