Numerous efforts are being made to achieve the Paris climate goals, and the automotive industry plays a key role in this. It is launching more and more vehicles with electric drives that can be driven locally with the lowest possible emissions. The goal is to make mobility climate-neutral by 2050 at the latest. The mobility platform IAA MOBILITY, which also organises the trade fair of the same name in Munich, has evaluated the registration data available worldwide for all fully electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
According to this evaluation, there are already around 10 million electrified vehicles on the world’s roads, and the trend is rising. Most of them are in China – with 4.2 million electric cars, the country is ahead of Europe with 3.2 million and the USA with 1.7 million. The development in these three main markets is quite different, however. In 2020, the largest number of electrified cars were registered in Europe, namely 1 368 167. For the first time, China was not the leader in these statistics, having registered 1 246 289 cars in the same period. The USA lags behind at a distance with 302 929 registrations. Within Europe, Germany was the frontrunner with 394 943 new registrations.
In Europe, the United Kingdom (447 486), Norway (433 609) and France (413 212) follow on behind Germany. Combined, these four countries account for more than half of the European market. A total of 33 234 BEVs and PHEVs were registered in Switzerland in 2020.
The following figures illustrate the dramatic increase in recent years: in 2016, 338 359 electrified vehicles were newly registered in China, 210 150 in Europe, 152 326 in the USA and 25 214 in Germany[RA2] .
At 6.1 vehicles, Europe has the most BEVs and PHEVs registered per 1000 inhabitants. Worldwide, the average is 1.4 vehicles, with Norway at the top with 81, ahead of Iceland (36.8) and Sweden (20.6), which are also well above average. The USA has 5.2 electrified vehicles per 1000 inhabitants, China 3.0 and Germany 8.5.
According to the data from IAA MOBILITY, significant regional differences can be seen within Europe, with relatively large numbers of electrified vehicles per 1000 inhabitants in Northern and Central Europe, compared with low numbers in the south and east. The report also states that: “Achieving climate neutrality will require a large number of purely battery-electric vehicles driving locally emission-free. By 2020, thanks to high subsidies, pure electric vehicles accounted for 79 per cent of new electrified vehicles registered in the US, an important market for e-mobility. China even reached a ratio of 80 per cent.
With a share of 54 per cent, Europe is still below the global average of 68 per cent for pure battery-electric vehicles – but plug-in hybrids are very popular here. They also play an important part in lowering emissions in cities, while guaranteeing a high range for longer trips. The overall growth in the market for electrified vehicles shows that PHEVs serve as an entry-level product that attracts customers to e-mobility in the long term.”
