Electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) market will be valued $16 billion by 2013, says a report from Research and Markets.
While electric vehicle adoption is growing across the globe, convincing car owners to convert to EVs still remain a challenge, according to the report.
Higher costs and lack of supporting infrastructure are cited as the prime reasons for lower adoption of EVs.
According to the research from Research and Markets, only 100K 100 percent electric vehicles were sold in 2013, and only 2M EV/HEV cars in total.
For 2014, technological and architectural upgrades have been made and are ready to deploy, but the most important need is still to change the habits of end users and enable transition to an EV/HEV.
Development of charging infrastructure, battery cost reduction and increase in power density are pushing the EV/HEV market forward, the research says.
As the market grows, and the technology develops, the price difference between EV/HEV vehicles and gas-powered vehicles will progressively shrink, thus further accelerating EV/HEV market advancement.
Strict government mandates to reduce CO2 are also pushing the market for EV/HEVs in the Europe and the U.S. With government incentives and reducing cost of EVs, end-users will be attracted to these vehicles, the report said.
China is the most important target market for EV/HEVs, says the report. The Chinese government has been very aggressive in terms of CO2 reduction, and many joint-ventures with foreign car makers have been signed in order to promote electro-mobility.
In a significant step to promote EVs, China has allocated $10 billion in budget for the development of charging infrastructure. National and local governments are also involved in promoting EV/HEV; incentives are given to buyers and electric cars are bought for government officials’ use.