The number of electric vehicles on the road topped two million in 2016, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The agency reported that plug-in and battery-powered vehicles on roads worldwide rose 60% from 2015. Despite the growth, electric vehicles still represent just 0.2% of total vehicles on the road.
China was the largest electric car market, accounting for more than 40% of the electric cars sold in the World and more than double the amount sold in the United States.
There is a lot of government and manufacturer activity around electric vehicles. A multi government program called the Electric Vehicle Initiative recently set a goal of a 30% market share for battery-powered cars, buses, trucks and vans by 2030, according to IEA. The ten governments in the initiative include China, France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S. India, which isn’t part of the group, has said it plans to sell ONLY electric vehicles by the end of the next decade.
Consumer interest and charging infrastructure, as well as declining demand for diesel cars has spurred manufacturer investments in plug-in cars. Volkswagen plans to roll out four new electric vehicles in the coming years as part of a goal to sell more than two million battery-powered vehicles a year by 2025, and Mercedes-Benz is also ramping up its introduction of ten new electric vehicles by 2022, according to IEA.