Russ Mitchell | Los Angeles Times (TNS)
The electric vehicle market is steeped in uncertainty. EV sales growth has slowed; automakers are pulling back on EV production; politics around the subject is growing nasty, as the very idea of driving an EV has entered the culture wars.
But one analyst says don’t fret: “Our long-term outlook for EVs remains bright.”
That’s according to market researcher BloombergNEF, which released the 2024 version of its annual electric vehicle outlook report earlier this month.
In 2023, EVs made up 18% of global passenger-vehicle sales. By 2030, according to the report, 45% will be EVs. That number jumps to 73% by 2040 — still short of what the world needs to reach net zero emissions in transportation, the firm says, but enough to achieve major reductions in climate-changing carbon emissions.
The long-term outlook adds a bit of glow to more recent news, especially in the U.S. and in California, where an EV sales slowdown, led by Tesla, has spanned two quarters, challenging the state’s climate goals.
A global survey conducted by consulting firm McKinsey, also released Wednesday, included this shocker: 29% of EV owners told McKinsey they plan to replace the EV they bought with a gasoline or diesel car, a figure that jumps to 38% for U.S. EV owners.
Phillip Kampshoff, who leads McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility in the Americas, said he’d seen EV sales as “a one way street. Once you buy, you’re hooked on an EV. But that’s not what the data shows.”
Under a 2020 edict by Gov. Gavin Newsom, auto manufacturers must phase out California sales of new fossil fuel cars between now and 2035, when only what the state calls “zero-emission vehicles” will be allowed. (The mandate allows 20% of those vehicles to be plug-in hybrids, which can run on fossil fuels.)
Eleven other states are following California’s lead, although Virginia’s Republican governor plans to drop out by year’s end.
Related Articles
Business |
Job boom returns to Bay Area and California as hiring surges in May
Business |
Lactose intolerant woman sues coffee shop chain for $5 million over oat milk surcharge
Business |
Home insurance at $10,000 a year shows California buyers’ pain
Business |
Disneyland employee killed in golf cart accident remembered for volunteer work
Business |
What’s left for the Supreme Court to decide? Here’s the list.
In the U.S., hard-knuckle politics are affecting consumer attitudes toward electric vehicles, as presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress have turned government regulations on emissions technology into a red meat issue for MAGA conservatives. Or, as BloombergNEF more gently puts it: “In the U.S., market jitters inflamed by upcoming presidential …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
