EV Sales Rose Significantly Worldwide In 2015

According to EV Volumes, an EV sales database and consultancy now partnering with EV Obsessionand CleanTechnica, EV sales in 2015 surpassed half a million vehicles. That includes electric cars and plug-in hybrids. The actual total was just under 540,000 vehicles. True, that is still a small percentage of total vehicle sales, but the the trend is upward and accelerating.

According to EV Volumes, “The accelerated growth is a good sign for EV adoption. Nearly 200,000 plug-ins were sold in Q4 alone! Admittedly, some special events inflated the quarter 4 results much beyond the trend of Q1-Q3. There was the run on plug-in hybrids in the Netherlands and Sweden (lower incentives for 2016), the boost in mini-EV sales in China (lower subsidies, depending on range) and the Tesla hype in Denmark (revised tax exemption schemes), to name the most significant.

“More natural demand was created by a spree of new plug-in hybrids during the 2nd half of 2015 — BYD Tang, Chevy Volt II, Passat GTE, BMW X5, and Volvo XC90. Accordingly, sales volume of plug-in hybrids increased faster (+80%) than for pure EVs (+64%). The global ratio of EV:PHEV is now 60:40; PHEV gained 2% in the mix during 2015.”

In Europe, EV sales rose to 1.24% of all cars sold, although the picture varies widely across the continent. In Norway, for example, nearly 20% of cars were electrics or plug-ins last year. Meanwhile, in China, EV sales jumped 223% in 2015. The Chinese government defines any car with an electric motor as a “new energy vehicle.” A large number of small, two seat cars are sold in China each year. More and more of those are electrics.

The message from all these statistics is that government policies and incentives still play a vital role in the number of EVs that are sold every year. In China, the national government is embarrassed to find that its stunning economic growth, which was powered mostly by electricity generated from burning coal, has turned the skies over many of its cities into a poisonous stew. That polluted air is having disastrous consequences for its people. (Unlike Republicans in America, Chinese policy makers still place a higher priority on people than on corporations.) It not only offers generous EV incentives, it gives EV drivers preferential treatment when it comes to accessing parking and obtaining vehicle registrations.

The electric car revolution will not become a groundswell until electric cars are cost competitive with conventional vehicles. Until that day, incentives will be required to get people to spend more money for an electric car. When incentives get cut, EV sales drop. That was the case in Georgia last year. When it ended its generous $5,000 EV rebate and replaced it with an annual EV fee, sales of electric carsplunged 90%.

Tesla Charging Woes Means Apology For Norway

Elon Musk apologized to Norwegian owners of the Tesla Model S, some of whom have had difficulties charging their Teslas in the extreme colds of Scandinavia. The issue seems to stem from the Tesla Universal Mobile Connector, or TUMC, which isn’t meshing well with Norway’s electrical grid in all cases.

The Tesla Model S has become one of Norway’s best-selling cars, and has helped make EVs become the top-selling vehicles in the cold northern country, thanks in large part to some crazy-generous incentives. Norway is an important market for Tesla, and Elon Musk has taken care to sooth the feelings of some upset owners who found their electric sedans slowly, or not charging at all. The apology from Musk goes out to about 2,100 Tesla Model S owners in Norway, though it is estimated that “less than 10%” of owners are affected by the charging woes. The issue only seems to come up when temperatures dip to extreme lows, a fairly regular occurrence in one of the world’s coldest countries, thought he Model S has proven to be more than capable of handling Norway’s frozen roads.

Tesla and Musk have responded with more than just an apology though, as a software update to the TUMC has supposedly resolved 95% of the reported charging issues. WTesla will continue to work on the issue until “everything is perfect”, though this is a fairly benign pothole in the grand scheme of things. Norway already hasa fairly comprehensive Supercharger network, and the rest of Europe will soon be covered by Superchargers as well.

That said though, it makes me wonder how the Tesla Model S will handle less-modern electrical grids, like those powering parts of China or other Asian countries. Just another challenge for Musk and co. to overcome I suppose.

Source: The Wall St. Journal