Promising Growth for Electric Vehicles but will it Continue?

Posted by: JackSawyer // Student

Eleven years ago there were a few hundred electric vehicle on the planet, today there are 400,000. This is a big growth spurt for EV adoption, but if we are to reach goals set by individual countries and the Paris Agreement, that adoption rate must keep growing exponentially.

Fortunately, there are a number factors that lend themselves to this happening: battery prices are falling, battery energy density is growing and government subsidies have been effective. In addition to goals set by countries, we also have companies setting ambitious objectives. Tesla for example, is attempting to get lithium ion batteries down to $100 per kilowatt hour. With everyone seemingly sharing the same objective, hopefully we can get 150 million EV's out on the road by 2030 - this is the number we'd likely need to stay on track with the goal to keep the Earth's temperature from rising above 2 degrees.

Despite these promising factors, the roads are, and will most likely continue to be, dominated by gasoline powered cars. With India and China's middle class both growing we will still see gasoline car growth. However, if technology improves exponentially and companies and government can continue to help diversify and promote the EV market, we could see EV's become cheaper and more practical than their hazardous counterparts.

Do you think we can reach 150 million EV's by 2030?

Plumer, Brad. "The Stunning Growth of Electric Cars, in Four Charts." Vox. N.p., 06 June 2016. Web. 11 June 2016. http://www.vox.com/2016/6/6/11867894/electric-cars-global-sales>.