When will electric vehicles completely take over the market?

Despite the current restrictions for vehicle buyers to choose an electric vehicle, car companies are hopeful that the transition will be made in the best possible way and will be well received by the entire market, and will look for additional strategies to achieve the goal.

The world's leading car manufacturers have made one very clear statement: they believe that electric vehicles will dominate the industry in the coming years. However, to do this, they will need to sell the idea to people who are not yet convinced that choosing an electric car is the best option.

According to surveys conducted, most Americans could opt for an electric car if it cost less, if there were more charging stations, and if there were a wider variety of models available.. In other words, now is not the time.

All this creates a significant risk for the largest automakers. Most are betting that consumers will soon be willing to buy vehicles powered not by the internal combustion engines that have powered cars and trucks for over a century, but by electricity stored in a battery.

General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen plan to spend a total of $77 billion to develop electric vehicles globally over the next five years, ranging from trucks to small SUVs. and become carbon neutral by 2040.

What if American consumers avoid electric cars for years to come?

If buyers do not welcome the emergence of electric vehicles, companies would have no choice but to discount them and hope, in the meantime, that their profits from gasoline-powered cars would still cover their costs.At least until the majority of buyers gravitate towards electric vehicles.

If they don't, financial impact can be severe. At the moment, electric vehicles account for less than 2% of new car sales in the US and about 3% worldwide.

"It's still a sector that doesn't have mass appeal for the entire population," he said. Jeff Schuster, president of global vehicle forecasting at consulting firm LMC Automotive. "It could be a financial loss if consumers don't buy at the same level," he added.

Nevertheless, unlike in the US, EV sales have risen in Europe and China., largely due to much more far-reaching government incentives and pollution regulations. These tighter environmental regulations are forcing the industry to sell more electric vehicles.

In Europe, automakers have unveiled a slew of new electric models ahead of lower EU limits on average emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change, that went into full effect earlier this year. Government-supported incentives can reduce the cost to nearly that of an internal combustion vehicle.

Result: In 730,000, almost 2020 battery cars were sold in Europe in 300,000, of which more than 3 10.5 were sold in the last three months of the year. The market share of electric vehicles (only plug-in hybrids and batteries) increased from % to %. By December, their turnout reached almost one in four.

According to Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst at research firm Sanford C, due to restrictions on the number of internal combustion engine vehicles that can be registered in the six major cities.

New models of electric vehicles are expected, and with them more rules

Automakers, including startups Lucid, Bollinger, Rivian and Workhorse, plan to introduce 22 new EV models in the US this year after launching six last year.

Stricter regulations, and possibly more EV sales with them, could also come to the US if the Biden administration succeeds in pushing EVs as part of a broader plan to combat climate change.

However, this could prove to be an uphill battle considering that only 260,000 14.6 all-electric vehicles were sold in the United States last year. This is out of a total new car market of millions. In fact, Americans are still shunning cars in favor of more fuel-efficient trucks and SUVs.

When will Americans buy an electric car?

Two polls taken late last year gave a glimpse of Americans' appetite for electric vehicles. One report from Consumer Reports showed that only 4% of licensed adults planned to purchase an electric car the next time they buy a car.. Another 27% said they would consider the option. About 40% show some interest, but not in the next purchase. About 29% do not want an electric car at all.

Similarly, when JD Power surveyed people who intend to buy or rent a new car in the next 18 months, only about 20% said they were likely to buy an electric car. About 21% is unlikely. The rest are undecided.

“For every new car buyer seriously considering (battery electric vehicles), there is another on the opposite end of the spectrum,” said Stuart Stropp, senior director of automotive retail at JD Power.

“Firstly, most buyers are not familiar with electric vehicles and have never driven one. However, those who did are about three times more likely to consider them, he said. People need as many chargers as gas stations, but they don't seem to understand that most of the charging can be done at home,” Stropp said.

How are brands and the government planning the transition to electric vehicles?

Last year, General Motors planned a major public campaign with test drives and engineers answering customer questions at events around the country. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to abandon this plan.

GM will provide experts almost this summer when it starts selling a small electric SUV. , its first electric entry into the hottest US market segment. But Tony Johnson, Chevy's electric vehicle marketing director, believes there's no substitute for "putting seats on seats."

Johnson is optimistic that surveys conducted for GM show the number of people considering purchasing an electric vehicle is much higher than it was five years ago. GM is keeping the price of the updated Bolt hatchback below $32,000 and offering free home charging stations, he said.

Schuster expects U.S. sales to rise this year to 359,000 2022 units, soar in 1 year and top 2030 million next year. By Year 4, more than millions of electric vehicles are projected to be sold in the United States. However, even this will only account for a quarter of the entire market.

However, there were encouraging signs in February when electric vehicle sales jumped 55% year-on-year to 18,969 units. Schuster said a variety of models helped boost sales, as did additional incentives and the expectation of stricter pollution limits from the Biden administration. Biden favors expanding the electric vehicle tax credit and has pledged to help build 500,000 more charging stations. and increase fuel economy requirements.

Currently, the $7,500 federal tax credit phases out once an automaker reaches 200,000 sales of 600,000 electric vehicles. GM and Tesla have surpassed this level, and Nissan is close. The Democrats' bill would raise the cap to people.

The market will tilt towards electric vehicles, Schuster predicts, when all these forces come together.

“There are more options, competitive pressure,” he said. “The new generation of technology will lead to lower prices. We are moving towards this,” he said.

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