According to a report by the non-government organisation Transport & Environment (T&E), electric cars look set to triple their market share this year. T&E, who work in transport and the environment and promote sustainable transport in Europe, says this trend has happened despite the coronavirus pandemic that has seen sales of combustion engine cars fall.
During the first half of 2020 sales of electric car and plug-in hybrid have risen massively. T&E has looked at these sales and found that this market has tripled its market share during this period. They also expect electric plug-in sales to roughly double to one million sales for the year.
T&E believe this is down to tougher European Union emissions laws and post-pandemic lockdown incentives in countries such as France and Germany. From their analysis they also believe that sales might only rise to 20 percent over the next four years if current CO2 regulations are not revised, the analysis shows. As a consequence T&E has urged the Europe Union to set tougher emissions targets in the future to ensure electric vehicle sales continue to grow.
Julia Poliscanova, senior director for clean vehicles at T&E, said: “Electric car sales are booming thanks to Europe Union emissions standards. Next year, one in every seven cars sold in Europe will be a plug-in. European Union manufacturers are back in the electric vehicle race, but without more ambitious CO2 targets in 2025 and 2030 to spur them on, they’ll run out of steam as soon as 2022.”