Electric Vehicle Sales Doubled In 2021, With More Now Sold Each Week Than Entire Year In 2012

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: The electric vehicle (EV) market is soaring, with 130,000 cars sold globally each week, roughly equivalent to sales for the entire year in 2012. Sales of EVs more than doubled in 2021, even with supply chain snarls and pandemic-related shrinking of demand for gas-powered cars. New data, from the influential intergovernmental International Energy Agency (IEA), revealed that 6.6 million electric cars were sold last year -- twice the number of 2020 -- making up 9 per cent of the global car market. IEA says the growth is 'particularly impressive' over the last three years. The number has about tripled from 201 when 2.2 million electric cars were sold. 'We estimate there are now around 16 million electric cars on the road worldwide, consuming roughly 30 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year, the equivalent of all the electricity generated in Ireland,' the IEA reported last week.

More than half of all electric cars are being sold in China (3.4 million), but the market is steadily growing in Europe and the United States. In the US, electric car sales more than doubled in 2021. More than 500,000 new EVs hit the highways, accounting for 4.5 per cent of the market. Tesla is still the strongest player, accounting for more than half of all electric car sales. A 'generous' tax-credit system for EVs in the US may be influencing new car buyers (although it doesn't apply to Tesla and General Motor vehicles, IEA notes). In Europe, 2.3 million electric cars were sold in 2021, about half of which were plug-in hybrids, against a backdrop of tightened carbon emissions standards and more subsidies being rolled out by countries in the bloc. Germany made up the largest share of the European market last year where more than one in three cars sold was an electric model.

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