Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 7

71 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 7 1. There were 11 million registered electric vehicles on the road at the end of last year 10 million of these were cars. The total number of electric cars, buses, vans and trucks is projected to rise to 145 million, or 7% of road transportation, by the end of the decade under governments’ existing energy and climate policies. With even bolder climate programs and emission reduction targets, there could be up to 230 million electric vehicles on our streets – 12% of all road transport – by 2030. Motorcycles and mopeds were not included in the figures. 2. Electric car buying remained high in the face of the pandemic Electric car registrations were up 41% in 2020, despite a 16% drop in overall car sales across the world. Last year was indeed a ground-breaking one for the sector, as Europe overtook China as the centre of the global electric car market for the first time. From global electric car sales of 3 million, registrations in Europe more than doubled to 1.4 million, while in China they increased to 1.2 million. 3. Consumer and government spending on electric cars rose in 2020 A rise in the number of different EV car models available in the market to 370 and the falling cost of batteries saw consumers spend 50% more on electric cars in 2020, to the tune of $120 billion. Governments also continued to encourage the move to EVs, spending $14 billion on direct THE FUTURE OF ELECTR I C VEHI CLES Global electric car registrations and market share 2015-2020: Europe surpassed China for the first time in 2020. Image: IEA