Electric Vehicles: The market leaders will constantly change until mass adoption arrives

Almost conclusively now, electric vehicles appear to have won the power train argument in the automotive industry and car manufacturers from all over the world have made significant promises to deliver only hybrid and electric vehicles in the future. From automotive shows to the world’s cities, new models and ideas are being tested and the general public whilst being broadly reticent at first is now beginning to accept the idea of battery powered chargeable vehicles.

Whilst the industry waits for consumer adoption levels to really boom, manufacturers are gearing up for a serious fight to establish a position in what will undoubtedly become the main automotive market. The leaders of a few years ago now have significant new challengers and are having to fight harder for sales than ever before. Huge new challenges are becoming obvious as the world tries to establish exactly how it will power and build all these new vehicles. There is a new heavy demand for the rare earth materials that electric vehicles need and some concerns about the environmental implications of replacing the global fleet with this technology.

One country that is not being overly cautious about this change is China and it has ploughed ahead to the point where its manufacturers are now dominant in the electric vehicle industry. Within the next decade a point will arrive where electric vehicles will outsell traditional combustion engine vehicles, but in order for that to happen and it not be a charging and technical disaster many things must change.

Key Highlights

– The EV market is due to grow dramatically very soon. A number of factors have been slowly converging which should cause this. The diesel scandals have lifted the veil on traditional power trains and consumers are now fully aware that whichever engine they choose, the supposed eco-credentials of any internal combustion engine are largely false claims. The evidence for this is that diesel sales in Europe, which make up 50% of the engines, have fallen dramatically, by around 20%.

– Over the last decade, the two companies that have really dominated the EV market and set the terms of engagement that we see today are Nissan and Tesla. Nissan’s Leaf is the bestselling EV of all time and the car has won numerous plaudits being well in advance of the competition in the early days as Nissan committed to the EV market with a well built and designed product. Nissan was rewarded for its risk taking and the Leaf has become ubiquitous, with its around 100 mile range and competitive pricing.

– The current position in the EV market though is increasingly difficult to assess. The new second generation Leaf has dropped out of the top ten lists in Europe, the US and China having had a slightly stunted book of sales since its announcement and Tesla continues to have massive delays in its supply chain for the new Model 3, leaving many to question the future financial health of the company. Looking at January 2018 sales figures, new players have started to emerge in the market in the US and Europe, and Chinese domestic manufacturers have completely taken over its domestic market, squeezing players from overseas out.

Scope

– Examine who the main players are in the EV industry and who are the emerging new players

– Look at the challenges faced by the industry and how likely these are to be overcome

– See the countries that are really pushing ahead with the technology and why

– Analyze the future of the industry, who the winners and losers are and what the competition looks like

Reasons to buy

- What are the most important EV models on sale?

- What companies are going to become dominant?

- Why are hybrids so important in EV tech?

- What does the future of the industry look like?

- What do governments need to do to encourage growth?

- How far away are we from the expected EV boom?

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