Successfully Catching Up: New Ceresana Report on the European Market for Electric Cars

KONSTANZ, Germany - March 23, 2021 - PRLog -- Electrification is not only rapidly changing the automotive industry. Innovative technologies and new business models are transcending old industry boundaries: Telecom companies have become interested in car sharing, supermarkets are competing with gas stations by offering charging stations, cars as electricity storage units and vehicle-to-grid systems are promoting renewable energy, chemical companies are supporting lightweight construction, and major Internet companies are working on autonomous driving.

Electrification of the Automotive Industry

The market research company Ceresana has examined the rapidly growing European market for electrically powered passenger cars, i.e. battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV). The transformation of the automotive industry has enormous economic effects. There are currently over 357 million passenger cars on the road in Europe. Cars with gasoline or diesel engines (ICE) still predominate, however, electromobility is being massively promoted in many countries and thus breaks record after record.

While the number of new car registrations across Europe fell by almost 21% compared to 2019 in the wake of the Corona crisis, sales of electric cars increased massively. PHEVs and BEVs now already account for 12.4% of new registrations in Western Europe. The European car manufacturers Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, and Renault were able to catch up significantly with Tesla and Asian manufacturers such as BYD.

Generous government aids

Almost all European countries promote the purchase of low-emission vehicles with financial and legal incentives. Even comparatively poor countries, such as Romania, Greece, or Slovakia, provide large grants and loans for the purchase of environmentally friendly electric cars. The production of battery systems as well as the charging infrastructure is being massively expanded. The key drivers of electromobility are the stipulations of the European Union, which is constantly tightening the limits for greenhouse gas emissions as part of its "Green Deal".

CleanTech Conquers the Green Future

The analysts at Ceresana expect new registrations of electrically powered vehicles (PHEV & BEV) across Europe to increase to over 8.7 million p.a. by 2030. For BEVs, this means an average increase of 25% per year, while PHEVs are expected to grow by 11.7%. Other drive technologies, i.e. primarily cars with conventional internal combustion engines, are expected to decline by a total of 3.4% p.a. across Europe. According to Ceresana's prediction, there will be nearly 34 million BEVs and 13.8 million PHEVs on European roads in 2030. In Western Europe, this will increase the share of electric cars in the total passenger car stock from around 1% in 2020 to an expected 20% in 2030.

Further information: https://www.ceresana.com/en/market-studies/industry/hybri...