With Norway as the undisputed champion in the market, the electric car revolution is accelerating in the world, but particularly in the countries of the European Union, where sales of these last year marked a record: 12.1%.
So the word “range anxiety“, which translates as “range anxiety” for an electric car, has become a common term in Norway, one of the members of the community bloc, where the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles will be banned from 2035.
In that Nordic country, four out of five new cars sold in 2022 were electric-powered models, a milestone in a country that is a major oil producer and whose goal is to end fossil fuel-powered cars in three years, ahead of time. a decade to the goal set by its European partners.
And this revolution in mobility that has as a climax to reduce the deep environmental footprint accelerated in the world for a sudden reason: the hydrocarbon crisis due to the war in Ukraine.
But it is also worth clarifying The European car market suffered a slowdown in 2022 due to a shortage of chips. However, electric cars, protected by manufacturers, resisted and this year heralds a full acceleration, after the sale of these vehicles reached the previously reported percentage.
“The growth of electric sales will far exceed that of the market,” says Al Bedwell, of the LMC Automotive cabinet, based on the balance of the market. In this way, and despite the fact that the sector was slowed down by the pandemic and by problems with the supply of parts, in 2022 the acquisition of these cars rose 28% compared to the immediately previous year, totaling 1.1 million units.
Sales of those new clean energy-powered cars had been 9.1% two years ago and just 1.9% in 2019.
In addition to Norway, it stands out that the German market where the acceleration in the purchase of electric vehicles was registered in the last months of the year, before the benefits that drove this growth were reduced. In contrast, the Italian was the only one where this trade fell.
In the European Union, non-rechargeable hybrids also continued to grow (+8.6%) and already represent 22.6% of sales, with just over two million copies sold, while rechargeable ones (equipped with a gasoline or diesel and a small plug-in rechargeable electric motor) slowed for the first time, with a sales increase of 1.2%, to 874,182 units.
In total, electric cars (hybrid and 100% electric) have exceeded sales of gasoline cars since the end of 2021, which represented 36.4% of them the previous year, with almost 3.3 million units.
The general director of Renault and new president of the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA), Luca de Meo, maintained that “we are moving fast, more than other sectors” and warned that “this transition cannot be limited to the automotive sector”.
De Meo highlighted the need to install more charging stations and plugs, whose installations are limited to 2,000 per week in the EU, well below the 14,000 required according to the sector.
European manufacturers are investing some 250,000 million euros in electric models, highlighted Luca de Meo, who after admitting that, based on prices, it is the households with the greatest economic possibilities that are buying these vehicles, but “this situation must change as that electric cars become widespread.
China first, but…
China maintains its pioneering position in the restructuring of the sector, with very favorable public policies so far, and sales of electric vehicles doubled in 2022. But these could slow down this year, in line with the evolution of Chinese economic activity, according to LMC experts.
The North American market is behind. But with the rise of electric models from Ford or General Motors, especially pickup trucks, electric cars could account for as much as 7% of the market this year, with 1.3 million vehicles expected, according to LMC.
In total, one in eight cars (12.5%) sold in the world in 2023 could be electric.
In Latin America, Colombia is leading the race towards sustainable transportation, with growth in sales of hybrid and electric vehicles. The National Electric Mobility Strategy that the Duque government launched in 2019, had the objective of introducing 6,600 electric cars by 2022 and 600,000 by 2030. That first figure has been far exceeded, since according to what “Andemos” reported, in 2021 14,694 units were sold (6,418 of them electric) and last year it amounted to 22,141 (preserving the previous proportion).
Globally, Tesla, the manufacturer that started the electric revolution, remains the top seller in that category. Elon Musk’s company sold 1.3 million units in 2022, with its Model Y SUV at the forefront and forecasts an increase of 37% for this year.
But the Chinese BYD lags behind. The manufacturer almost tripled its sales of electric vehicles in 2022 (with 900,000 units) and expects to develop its activity in Europe and North America.
Chinese manufacturers like BYD or NIO are “the most competitive in the world, they work harder and smarter,” Musk recently stressed.
Industry veterans such as Volkswagen (with its ID range but also the Porsche, Audi or Cupra brands) and the Stellantis group (Peugeot, Jeep) are also launching more and more electric models in order to position themselves in this juicy market.
The leaders of the luxury sector, such as Rolls-Royce or Ferrary, plan to launch their first electric models soon.
The only one that continues to defend hybrids is Toyota, which presents them as a more accessible and concrete solution for the ecological transition.
Price war?
Electric cars continue to be, on average, much more expensive than their gasoline equivalents, selling for as low as 35,000 euros ($38,000), making them inaccessible to the middle classes, despite subsidies.
And although the leader of the sector, Tesla, forcefully reduced its rates by up to 20% in Europe and the United States and Ford affirmed that it will do so soon, neither Renault nor Volkswagen want to enter into a price war within a sector that at the moment it is very juicy.
“In the end, everyone tries to protect their margins. Launching a price war right when we launch operations is not the best thing that can happen to the market. We need to invest,” De Meo said.
“In 2022 there were not enough vehicles to meet the demand. The situation could be reversed this year and manufacturers will have to ‘push’ their vehicles and drive prices down,” said German analyst Matthias Schmidt.
They could also react to the arrival of Chinese manufacturers, who, in addition to offering imported cars at more advantageous prices, are considering manufacturing them in Europe.
In addition, smaller and cheaper models, such as the Renault 5, are expected to hit the market in the coming years.
As you can see, this is an unstoppable market. And although the fear of a breakdown continues to be one of the main factors of concern, as well as its autonomy and recharge, which can last from 20 minutes to several hours -depending on the power of the recharging station- they are positioning themselves due to individual awareness. , increasingly larger, to contribute to environmental care.
And while most charging is done at home, it is crucial that fast charging stations are developed, according to representatives of the automotive sector.
According to a McKinsey cabinet report, the The European Union will need 3.4 million charging points by the end of the decade, with electricity networks ready to withstand the pressureno. In total, this could represent some 240,000 million euros (about 261,000 million dollars) in costs. Like Tesla, players like Fastned or Ionity (which includes BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes and Volkswagen) are investing in filling the roads of charging stations, because the race towards sustainable transport is unstoppable.