Despite slow adoption of plug-in vehicles, electric
charging station market will grow in unit sales from around 120,000 in 2012 to
1.3 million units in 2020, rising from $140 million in 2012 to $1.15 billion in
2020, a CAGR of 30 percent, according to the latest report from Lux Research.
With government policy and investment driving automotive
companies toward plug-in vehicles, the technology for delivering electricity to
these vehicles will rise to a $1.2 billion market in 2020, according to
a Lux Research report.
“Success for EVSE will ultimately follow the success of
electric vehicles,” said Kevin See, Lux Research senior analyst and the lead
author of the report titled, “Charging Ahead: Finding Reality in the Electric
Vehicle Supply Equipment Market.” “It’s critical for those invested in charging
stations to find the applications where there’s substantial growth.”
Lux
Research analysts studied a web of partnerships in the EVSE market, besides
building a forecast for its growth. Among their findings:
Among the regions, Europe will lead the global
market with 2020 annual sales of 480,000 units. China forges ahead after a slow
start, growing to 277,000 annual unit sales of charging stations by 2020.
China consumes the most energy in electric
vehicles. In 2020, plug-in vehicles in China will consume 1.9 TWh of
electricity, or 23 percent of all energy consumed by plug-ins, the largest by
any individual country, translating into $155 million in revenue for Chinese
utilities.
Web of partnerships is key. Auto OEMs such as
Ford, Daimler, GM, BMW, and Nissan form the core of charging infrastructure
partnerships, with complex inter-connections with emerging companies — like BMW’s
recent investment in Coulomb Technologies — and utilities.