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Is The Future of Transport Electric? These Car Manufacturing Giants Think So
30 October 2017
Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are far from a short term fad. From 2013 to September 2017, new registrations of plug-in cars soared from 3,500 to more than 126,000.
And with almost every manufacturer offering or releasing a plug-in hybrid vehicle, it seems the trend will only get stronger. Automakers will only produce more and more electric vehicles, if not to meet the growing customer demand, to not get left behind by the competition, come under emission targets, and get their money’s worth from the long term investment that is electric power.
So, if electric vehicles really are the future of transport, what can we expect to see in the coming years?
Firstly, car manufacturers will move their focus to electric versions of their gasoline powered models, offering hybrid options and releasing dedicated electric model lines. One of the biggest electric initiatives is by General Motors. The auto giant is planning to release 20 new all-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles globally by 2023, with the first two launching in the next eighteen months.
Daimler AG, one of the biggest producers of premium cars and the world's biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles, is also investing heavily in electric vehicles. Under its new Mercedes Benz EQ subbrand, it’s spending $11 billion to bring at least 10 EVs to market by 2022.
In 2017, however, the leading EV manufacturer is by far Renault-Nissan Alliance. By October this year, the alliance will have sold around half a million electric vehicles worldwide, largely thanks to the Renault Zoe, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and the Nissan Leaf — currently the world’s best-selling electric car.
Nissan plans to maintain its position at the top of the electric vehicle market with its soon to be released all-new Leaf, equipped with autonomous ProPilot technology.
Where does Tesla stand in all this? Well, the innovative Silicon Valley-based manufacturer has now sold more electric cars than GM, but it’s still lagging far behind Nissan. The company is experiencing slower than expected growth, purportedly due to production bottlenecks. But it claims it is ramping up efforts, and, by the final quarter of 2017, will be producing 5,000 units per week.
It’s also worth mentioning BMW — believed to be the world’s third-largest electric car manufacturer. The company held a 7-percent share of the market in 2016, and plan to dominate the premium end of the market by expanding its EV offering across their three low-selling but high-profiting brands: BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce.
And then you've got Volvo, the China-owned Swedish auto manufacturer that claims it will be the first to offer an electric power train option for every one of its new cars by 2019. Stating that electrification is at “the core of its future business.”
Wherever you look, manufacturers are investing heavily in electric and plug-in vehicles. It’s what the customer wants, and, with over a dozen new models set to hit the market in recent months, it what the customer will get.
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