Electromobility – disruptive and market-dominating

Overall, the topic of electromobility is clearly gaining momentum. This disruptive topic dominates the market with many aspects and effects for us and our customers. The automotive industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation process and OEMs are now, almost without exception, focusing on the technology and investing multibillions in new platforms (see: Electric platforms of the car manufacturers – an overview or see:The change in the vehicle E/E-Architectures), software systems (e.g. OS-operating systems) and battery technology, including production factories (e.g. Telsa in brandenburg or VW wiht PowerCo in Salzgitter). Both, the total number and the number of registrations are rising sharply. Worldwide, the stock of electric vehicles has risen to more than 17.4 million and in 2021 alone, 108 % more than in 2020. More than 6.7 million e-cars were sold for the first time.The global share of EVs (BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More & PHEVPHEV – plugin hybrid electric vehicle More) in global light vehicle sales was 8,3 % compared to 4,2 % in 2020.  Germany has a plus of 264 % – the highest growth rate worldwide. The remarkable growth rate of 108 % y/y needs to be seen relative to the low base volume of 2020.
See the summary and overview of figures, data and facts about electromobility in the Details.

Germany

In 2022, according to the KBAKBA – Kraftfahrbundesamt (German Federal Motor Transport Authority) More, the stock of passenger cars with purely electric drive (BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More) in Germany comprises over 700.000 vehicles, or 2.6% BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More and PHEVPHEV – plugin hybrid electric vehicle More, (btw: in 2012 there were only about 4,500 electric cars in Germany).
According to the forecast, the share of electric cars in the stock could already be 11.1 % by 2025, and 24.4 % by 2030.

Number of electric cars in Germany p.a.

2021:

• New registrations of electric cars (BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More): 355.961
• Model with the most new registrations of electric cars (BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More): Tesla Model 3 (35,262).
  Incidentally, in 2022 the Fiat 500 was one of the most popular passenger car models with an all-electric drive, with around 11,300 units.
• Segment with most new registrations of electric cars (BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More): SUV (279,802)

New registrations 2021 BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More in europe:
Germany: 355.961
UK:           190.727
France:    162.167
Norway:    113.751
Italy:         67.283

Number of new registrations electric cars in Germany p.a.

By comparison, the KBAKBA – Kraftfahrbundesamt (German Federal Motor Transport Authority) More recorded significant declines in overall registration figures. In 2021 in total, 2.62 million new cars were sold. That is 10.1 % less than in 2020 and one million fewer passenger cars than in 2019!
Passenger cars with combustion engines were particularly affected. Compared to 2020, 28.6 % fewer petrol cars were registered, and the figures for diesels fell by 36.0 %. Only electric cars increased.

Global

Globally, electromobility is also on the rise. In 2021 alone, more than 6.75 million vehicles were registered. 71 % of these, or 4.80 million units, were pure electric cars (BEVBEV – battery electric vehicle; pure battery electric cars More), the remaining 29 %, or 1.94 million units, were PHEVs; a few fuel cell cars (FCEVs) accounted for the rest.
The total number of BEVs and PHEVs sold actually increased by 108 % – as only 3.24 million e-vehicles were sold in 2020. For 2022, EV-Volumes expects a market of around 9.5 million BEVs and PHEVs. That would again be about 40% higher unit sales.
Of the aforementioned 6.75 million BEVs and PHEVs in 2021, China accounted for about half (3.4 million). Europe had 2.3 million and North America only 0.7 million. China developed by far the most dynamically; here the increase compared to the previous year was 155 %, in Europe only 66 %.
However, the differences between the regions are enormous: in Europe the share was 17 %, in China 13 % and in North America only 4 %. These figures show that China is by far the world’s largest market for e-vehicles, but this is also due to the size of the overall market. In terms of the share of e-vehicles, Europe is ahead.

Number of electric cars global

Since the entire car market grew by only 4.6 % in 2021 compared to 2020, the doubling of sales of BEVs and PHEVs also means roughly doubling the market share of e-vehicles in total sales. This share increased from 4.2 % in 2020 to 8.3 % 2021.

Tesla led the way with 936.000 cars delivered in 2021. The majority of these (501.000 units) were Model 3s. VW Group (766.000 units) took the second place and BYD moved up four positions to third. The Chinese manufacturer delivered almost 600.000 cars, over 400.000 more than in 2020.

Also very successful, in third place, is the US carmaker General Motors with 341,000 all-electric vehicles. The Wuling Mini EV, which is sold on the Chinese market, accounts for a large part of the electric cars sold.

Among the international OEMs Ford, GM and Stellantis grew fastest. Ford with the new Mustang Mach-E; GM with booming Mini-EV sales from their partner Wuling and Stellantis by a large number of product launches.

Find the details summarized in the following table.

Fuel cell cars
The number of fuel cell cars is still at a very low level. But here, too, there is movement: In 2020, around 9,000 fuel cell cars were newly registered worldwide, a growth of around 17%. The global stock of fuel cell cars now stands at around 28,000.

Charging station Germany
Charging infrastructure is a prerequisite for the mobility transition. The number of publicly accessible charging stations is a criterion in the decision for an electric car. In 2021 alone, a total of over 6,000 new charging points were added, and drivers had access to over 25,600 charging points in December.

Country in Europe with the most charging stations in relation to the e-car fleet: Netherlands & Spain (4 e-cars per charging station each)

• statistica
• Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW)
• KBAKBA – Kraftfahrbundesamt (German Federal Motor Transport Authority) More
• ADAC
• insideevs
• Auto Motor & Sport
• EnBW
• ev-volumes