Electric Passenger Cars Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Innovations in battery technology: The ongoing innovations in electric car battery technology is one of the significant trends anticipated to augment electric passenger car sales in the coming years. Manufacturers are investing heavily in R&D to advance the features of EV batteries such as longer life, performance, and quick charging time, and also to mitigate the overall production costs. For instance, Sila Nanotechnologies and Group 14 Technologies the two start-ups are focused on developing silicon-based electrodes that can replace graphite in battery anodes. They are set to manufacture their innovative anode material for around 200,000 EVs in their Moses Lake facility. Furthermore, Sila Technologies has elevated over USD 900 million from Siemens, Mercedes, and ATL as a corporate investment.
• Development of public charging stations: To boost EV sales, governments worldwide are investing more in expanding public electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The easy accessibility of public chargers can significantly appeal to drivers to adopt or shift towards battery electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. For instance, according to the IEA study, there were around 1.8 million EV charging points worldwide in 2021. Globally, China has a large number of publicly accessible chargers, with 85% of the total accounts for fast chargers. Currently, there are around 50,000 active charging stations in the U.S.

Challenges

• Low availability of public EV chargers in poor economies: The low availability of public EV charging stations in poor and developing countries is one of the major factors hampering the adoption of alternate fuel vehicles such as BEVs and PHEVs. Private chargers are not affordable by all and the lack of knowledge regarding their use can also limit the sales of electric passenger cars.
• Limited expansion of advanced EV batteries: Even though manufacturers are investing more in battery technology advancements, most of these are in the production stages, and others that are introduced are limited to certain areas. The majority of drivers across the world are using EV batteries with low life and slow charging, hindering the overall electric passenger cars market growth.