New analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts there will be 145 million electric cars, buses, vans and heavy trucks on roads by 2030. But if governments ramp up efforts the global electric vehicle fleet could reach 230 million in the same period.
The Paris-based organization’s latest Global Electric Vehicle Outlook said roughly three million new electric cars were registered last year, a record amount and a 41% rise compared to 2019.
This jump pushed the total number of electric cars on the road to over 10 million, a figure supplemented by approximately 1 million electric buses, vans and heavy trucks.
The rise in electric car sales in 2020 was despite the worldwide automobile market contracting by 16% because of the coronavirus pandemic. And in the first quarter of 2021, electric car sales were almost two and a half times higher than during the same period in 2020.
“While they can’t do the job alone, electric vehicles have an indispensable role to play in reaching net-zero emissions worldwide,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.
“Current sales trends are very encouraging, but our shared climate and energy goals call for even faster market uptake,” he added.
Birol urged governments to use Covid economic recovery packages to “invest in battery manufacturing and the development of widespread and reliable charging infrastructure.”
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