The Global Electric Vehicle Market In 2022 – Virta

The global electric vehicle market share has taken a tremendous leap forward in the past decade, and we expect the trend to accelerate exponentially. Even though we’ve already seen some incredible growth in the number of EVs worldwide, electric car industry predictions would suggest that we’ve only just scratched the surface.

Let’s start by looking at some historical data about the development of the global EV market.

1. Historical data of the global EV market

To understand the current situation of the EV sector, let’s look at what happened in the past couple of years.

The year 2020 did not show a big growth in overall new car registrations. The global market for all types of cars was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn that followed. Amid the pandemic, the outlook for global EV sales was quite unpredictable in the beginning of the year.

However, as time showed, 2020 turned out to be a surprisingly positive year, with global EV sales growing by 43% from 2019 and the global electric car industry market share rising to a record 4,6% in 2020.

2021 followed, breaking records. Sales of electric vehicles doubled from 2021 to 6.75 million. The amount of EVs sold in a week in 2021 was higher than how many were sold in a whole year of 2012.

EVs are to play a central role in the ambitious objective of zero emission targets set for 2050, and the industry is clearly gearing up for it.

Source: EV volumes

Of course, while we’re heading in the right direction, the road to full electrification is still long — but it’s becoming a reality.

2. Global electric car market share and size

The year 2021 was already a major leap forward in terms of electric vehicle sales.

Sources: EV Volumes & Global EV Outlook 2022

2022 is a whole new story. The market is growing. It’s growing fast. And it’s growing everywhere.

Carried by a decarbonisation challenge most leading nations now take seriously, global EV sales keep accelerating in 2022. Looking at the first five months of the year, more than 3.2 million new plug-in cars were registered worldwide.

The increase in electric car registrations in Europe, where numbers are accelerating a lot faster than elsewhere since 2019, can be attributed to stimulus measures introduced by many European governments. Major markets have also introduced tax benefits and subsidies, which contributed to the sales growth.

Source: EV volumes

Out of Europe’s overall car sales, electric vehicles accounted for 17% in 2021. The largest European markets remain to be Germany, Norway, Iceland and Sweden, according to the 2022 Global EV Outlook by IEA.

3. The state of other electric vehicles

While passenger cars typically get all the credit for the EV revolution, it’s good to also consider other forms of transportation that are gradually becoming greener.

From public transportation to e-scooters: The entire transport industry is turning electric

An interesting EV trend that appeared already in 2020 and continues to gain on importance relates to public transportation and the sharing economy.

Buses

Electric buses have been growing in popularity since 2020. The global stock of electric buses in 2021 was 670 000. One of the emerging global leaders in electric bus fleets is India, aiming to introduce 5 500 electric buses according to this tender.

In the European Union countries, the Clean Vehicles Directive also provides a public procurement of electric buses. France, Germany, Spain or the UK are only a few of the countries witnessing an increase in electric bus sales.

Heavy-duty trucks

When it comes to heavy-duty trucks (HDT), manufacturers are showing their commitment to electrification of mobility. Many truck manufacturers strive for an all-electric future. HDT sales have been rapidly rising over the past five years in the United States and Europe.

In 2021 however, almost 90% of electric trucks were registered in China. Turning the existing fleet of HDT electric matters because even though they only account for 10 % of ICE vehicles, they are responsible for 70 % of ICE CO2 emissions.

Two and three wheelers

The biggest concentration of privately owned electric two/three wheelers is in Asia, specifically in China, accounting for 9.5 million registrations out of the total of 10 million in 2021. Vietnam and India follow as strong markets for electric two/three wheelers. The market is also growing in Europe, where it reached 5% market share in 2021.

4. The state of EV charging in europe

The most charging still happens at home or at work, but the more electric vehicles roaming the roads, the more public charging points will be needed in the future.

In 2021, we counted almost 376 000 publicly available EV chargers in Europe. By 2025, it’s estimated for 1.3 million charging stations to be publicly accessible and the number should grow to 2.9 million by 2030.

Fast(er) chargers make longer journeys a lot nicer and might be a reason for those without private charging access to buy an electric vehicle. They are the most efficient way to fight range anxiety (or how far can one go with an EV before having to stop and recharge).

In Europe, slow chargers are being replaced by rapid, fast, and ultra fast chargers. In 2021, the number of fast chargers was up by more than 30% and reached almost 50 000 units.

In Europe, only the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK still count an important part of slow chargers. The other European countries are making their way into the world of EVs by installing fast(er) chargers.

Another trend that’s steadily increasing in the EV space is the smart charging of electric vehicles, i.e. the use of cloud-connected charging devices. For business owners and consumers alike, smart EV charging allows — among other things— greater convenience and control over electricity consumption.

Lastly, we can’t mention EV charging trends without acknowledging vehicle-to-grid (V2G). V2G technology makes it possible to  transfer the electricity stored in electric vehicle batteries back to the grid, the same way stationary storages are connected to the grid. V2G services are already commercially available and several charger manufacturers are able to supply V2G chargers.

The V2G market is projected to grow to over $ 5 billion by 2024. The European standard for V2G charging, ISO 15118-20, developed back in 2020, defines the requirements for bidirectional charging. Virta has been recognised as one of the global leaders in V2G technology.