We are now in the biggest automobile revolution since the 1913 motor revolution led by Henry Ford. Electric cars are going to take over much sooner than we think. Many industry observers believe we have already passed the tipping point where sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will very rapidly overwhelm petrol and diesel cars. Companies like Jaguar, Volvo and Lotus have already said that they plan to go fully electric by 2030. General Motors says it will make only electric vehicles by 2035, Ford says all vehicles sold in Europe will be electric by 2030 and VolksWagen says 70% of its sales will be electric by 2030. But what makes the end of the petrol and diesel engines inevitable is a technological revolution. And technological revolutions tend to happen very quickly.
Global sales of electric cars raced forward in 2020, rising by 43% to a total of 3.2m, despite overall car sales slumping by 20% during the coronavirus pandemic. By 2025 20% of all new cars sold globally will be electric, according to the latest forecast by the investment bank UBS. That will leap to 40% by 2030, and by 2040 virtually every new car sold globally will be electric.
Companies like Tesla have already proved that there is a huge market for electric vehicles. In 2020, they sold almost 500,000 units in the US alone. The Company’s segments include automotive, and energy generation and storage. The energy generation and storage segment include the design, manufacture, installation, sales and leasing of solar energy systems and energy storage products, services related to its products, and sales of solar energy system incentives. The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk beleives that as soon as electric vehicles become cost-competitive with fossil fuel vehicles, the game will be up. He also said that they’ve seen a real shift in customer perception of electric vehicles, and their demand is the best they’ve ever seen. But, they beleive that there is still work to be done before EVs can completely outclass petrol and diesel engines. Some of the problems are the availability and accessibility to charging stations and of course, the actual affordability of the vehicles themselves. If these problems are worked on and solved in the next few years, we can surely say that electric automobiles will take over in no time as they are much better for the environment and we need them now more than ever.
