Some years ago, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel put her name to a target of 1 million EVs on the roads by 2020. At present, however, Germany boasts just 24,000 EVs; even when hybrid and plug-in hybrids are counted, the total is just 127,000 electrified vehicles. In the US, President Obama put out a similar target – 1 million EVs on US roads by 2015. That target has been quietly forgotten, and at the start of 2015, the US EV parc was not even a third of the way there.
In the first quarter of 2015, EV sales in the EU were up by 117.9%. It sounds like a spectacular increase, but from the low base point, this resulted in just 24,630 registrations. Still, it’s well on the way to beating the 39,000 pure EVs sold in Europe in 2014 – equivalent to 0.3% of total sales, according to ACEA.
In late June 2015, the Renault-Nissan Alliance announced the sale of its 250,000th EV worldwide; the relatively recent launch of the Renault Zoe means the Nissan Leaf accounted for the majority of that quarter-million sales figure. In the first half of 2015, Tesla sold 21,552 units of the Model S. In the five months to May 2015, BMW sold 10,490 i models; of this total, the i3 accounted for 8,256 sales, suggesting that it will easily exceed the 17,800 units sold in 2014.
Whichever way it’s cut, the market performance of EVs – globally – is far short of original expectations and needs help.
Subscribe to Automotive World to continue reading
Sign up now and gain unlimited access to our news, analysis, data, and research
Already a member?
