The Global Growth of Electric Vehicles
The number of electric vehicles (EVs) worldwide continues to grow rapidly, according to the latest data from the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Germany, reported by DPA and Agerpres. At the end of last year, there were approximately 42 million electric cars on the roads, about 50% more than in 2022. This figure includes fully electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and range-extended electric cars.
According to ZSW, 23.4 million electric cars were in China, accounting for more than half of the global stock. Following at a significant distance are the United States with 4.8 million, Germany with 2.3 million, France with 1.6 million, and the United Kingdom with 1.5 million.
In the long term, it is unlikely that China’s dominance will change, with a projected growth of 60% this year, much stronger than in other countries. Germany will need to accelerate its efforts to meet its electric vehicle targets and keep up with the global shift towards sustainable transportation.
The need for electric vehicles
The German government’s initiative to promote electric cars is just the first step in stimulating the market, according to Andreas Püttner from ZSW. He believes that more needs to be done, including phasing out subsidies for gasoline and diesel vehicles.
Leading electric vehicle manufacturers
In the past year, the top manufacturers of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were Chinese company BYD (with over three million units), American company Tesla (with 1.8 million units), and German group VW (with one million units). BMW and Mercedes also made the list, with approximately 570,000 and 400,000 EVs respectively.
