Electric vehicles: Driving range decides
Currently, 70 % of all available electric vehicles are battery-electric vehicles (BEVs); 25% are PHEVs. Frost & Sullivan Automotive and Transportation analyst Prajot Sathe believes that within the next three to four years the share of PHEVs will grow which translates into a faster market growth for this category compared to BEVs. The reason Sathe sees a higher demand for vehicles with high driving range. As an example, the analyst quotes BMW’s i3 which is available as a pure BEV and with an optional range extender. The latter achieves clearly higher sales figures, the release suggests.
Total sales of electric vehicles in 2015 are estimated at 466.407 units, up 53% from 304.683 units in 2014. North America will continue to lead the market with a share of 36%, Europe follows with 27% while China is almost on par with 24%. “Large EV OEMs such as Tesla, BMW and Daimler expect to benefit from incentives and subsidies in China and thus have clearly designed growth strategies to establish themselves at this market”, Sathe says. “However, since China reduces its subsidies by 5% every year, some OEMs will try to enter the markets wit alternative drive technologies such as fuel cells which continue to be eligible for these subsidies.”
Though the market for electric vehicles is growing in all regions, the overall sales so far have failed to meet the expectations. OEMs in North America and Europe did not reach their sales targets, with the main reasons being the buyer’s reluctance to embrace new technologies, the long time necessary to recharge their vehicles and the lack of awareness regarding the advantages of electric vehicles. Though the xEV market in the US has grown by more than 30% from 2103, the number of PHEVs and EVs remains at a very low volume of just 162.000 units – far behind the goal of 1 million units in 2015. One of the conclusions the OEMs are drawing from this fact is that they increase their efforts to improve the batteries to achieve a higher driving range. In the focus of these efforts is the energy density.
Another field where big efforts are currently under way is the charging infrastructure. “EV OEMs expand their charging networks by through partnerships”, observes Sathe. Tesla, in contrast, has a different strategy. The US based EV manufacturer is in the process of establishing a proprietary charging network and runs currently more than 120 charging stations in the US, 75 in Europe and 25 in Asia, where the number of charging stations is expected to double by the end of 2015.
Related information: https://www.frost.com/sublib/display-report.do?id=MAD6-01-00-00-00&bdata=bnVsbEB%2BQEJhY2tAfkAxNDI5ODYyODUyMjcw
EV market study from Frost & Sullivan
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