So far, 2021 has been a great year for electric vehicles as they are proving to be highly popular.
According to research from EV-volumes, a total of 2.65 million new EVs found new owners during the first half of 2021, an increase of +168% compared to 2020.
The study shows that all regions and most countries witnessed strong increases in EV sales, with growth rates 3 to 8 times higher than for total light vehicle markets.
The share of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Plug-in Hybrids (PHEV) in global light vehicle sales increased from 3% in 2020 H1 to 6.3% this year.
Europe leads with 14% EV share for the first 6 months combined, up from 7% a year ago. A caveat is that half of Europe's EV sales are PHEVs, compared to 80% pure electric outside Europe.
The tailpipe emissions of PHEVs are completely depending on the charging and driving habits of their users, whatever the catalogue value says. To their benefit it can be said that countries with high PHEV market shares usually have high BEV market shares as well.
Tesla leads global EV sales with 386,000 units delivered during the first half of the year, followed by the Volkswagen Group with 332,000 units, including 172,700 BEVs and 159,400 PHEVs. GM comes in 3rd with 227,000 units (221,000 were BEV), including over 180,000 Mini-EVs from their SGMW joint venture in China. Growth was robust in all product segments except for sportscars. In the product segment mix, the trend is from sedans and compacts into SUVs.
At this fantastic pace, EV-Volumes expects sales of 6.4 million EVs in 2021, a growth of 98% over 2020, with BEVs reaching 4 million units and PHEVs 2.4 million units. Growth rates will come down from the +168% seen in first half, as volumes compare to a higher base during 2020’s second half recovery. By the end of 2021 they expect over 16 million EVs in operation, counting light vehicles, 2/3 BEVs and 1/3 PHEV.