Emerging Electric Vehicle brands and their popularity around the world

The electric vehicles (EV) market is booming at the moment with 2.6 million electric vehicles being sold globally in the first half of 2021, which is up 160% from the first half of 2020. Electric cars consist of battery electric care (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVS). The two largest markets for EVs are Europe and Mainland China. Europe, in the first half of 2021, has sold 1 million EVs, while Mainland China has sold 1.1million. This is 81% of the total global sales worldwide which just shows how much the rest of the world is lagging.

In the UK, the government has recognized the importance of EVs and have recently declared that all new buildings are too be fitted with an electric charging point from 2022. Moreover, the UK has already experienced a huge growth in EV charging points – as of now, there are 42000 plugs, 10000 more than just two years ago in 2019.  

The plugin vehicle share of most countries is quite small but in 16 countries this is above 10% with 6 countries being above 20% in the first half of 2021. The most amazing part about this is that 15 of these countries are European while the other one is China (11%). The six countries with more than a 20% share are Germany (22.1%), Denmark (26.8%), Finland (28.3%), Sweden (39.9%), Iceland (55.6%), and Norway (82.7%). Norway in particular has a very high share because of the benefits that the Norwegian Parliament give to EV owners - a fee of almost 12,000 Euros.

Tesla has been the EV market leader for years and dominates the EV market in over a third (37%) of countries. In 2020 Tesla sold 439,760 units, with the Tesla Model 3 leading the market in 21 countries including Canada, USA, China, UK, Mexico and Australia. Though, the second leading EV manufacturer is Nissan, who outsold the Tesla Model 3 in 2020 with 500,000 units of their Leaf model. Furthermore, Nissan is the market leader in nine countries including Portugal, Poland, Ireland, Hungry and Japan. The other market leader is Renault, the Renault Zoe sold 97,000 units in 2020 and holds the market in six countries including France, Italy, Turkey and Spain. The last major market leader is VW. With the e-Golf, ID.3 and E-UP, VW has been able to dominate the markets in Slovenia, Norway and Croatia respectively.

Though it is a great sign that EVs are growing in sales around the globe, there are still many countries that have a lack of funding for EVs – most notably, those in various regions of Africa and South America. Evidently, retrieving data from these areas is extremely difficult or non-existent. Therefore, there are still untapped markets for EV manufacturers to take advantage of, especially as governments around the world continually warm to the idea of providing benefits to the owners of its electric cars – perhaps in an attempt to promptly achieve the domestic objectives agreed upon at the Summit in Glasgow earlier this month.