By Mr. Umair Nabeel, Renewable Energy and Environment Entrepreneur
Following on from the July 2020 article, the second part of this series puts the EV industry under the microscope, a breakdown of industry data which would allow the readers to develop a perspective, an inclusive one. But before that, let’s begin from where we concluded the last article, some fun and interesting news.
Australia, one of the fastest growing countries when it comes to renewable energy and mind you, innovative too. Though not quite in the top tier when it comes to EVs, it didn’t stop a family run pub in countryside Australia, who saw the presence of a decent number of EVs in their neighborhood as an opportunity. Not just a business opportunity but one to keep the community more closely knitted together and on top of that, lead the way when it comes to innovation. So now they have their own EV recharging station, making use of the space they had outside the pub. It’s powered by a roof top solar and storage system. Now local people and families leave their cars plugged in to the EV charging point whilst they dine and get together at their local pub. And the pub owners have found a source of additional revenue.
So, where are these 7.2 million EVs? One does ask themselves this question. Citing “IEA Global EV Outlook 2020” report published recently, a breakdown of the data shows two particular EV giants, China and EU (as a bloc combined). China registered another year of biggest leaps in terms of sale, year on year with an accumulated figure of 3.35 million (BEV+PHEV). Then it’s the EU, combined bloc which registered an accumulated figure of 1.75 million (BEV+PHEV). The United States followed up with gains too but sluggish. Nine countries crossed the 100,000 EVs on the road benchmark which is a very promising number. These are 100,000 families in nine countries each. I’ll let the readers put this into perspective and develop various scenarios, application based around their neighborhoods.
Production and finance are key factors, as with any industry. With the world’s leader in EVs , Tesla having completed their Giga factory 3 in China in record time and has been delivering their EVs to Chinese consumers already coupled with local OEM’s and our household automobiles manufacturers shifting to China or dedicating one of their existing production and assembly facilities to EVs only, the Asian subcontinent, ASEAN and APAC region has the potential to become the biggest EV market, which in turn serves both our climate change ambitions/targets and act as a catalyst for quality jobs creation especially given the covid-19 pandemic and the devastation it has brought with it. National governments need to focus on this industry, it’s a synergistic win win scenario for all stakeholders. International financing institutions have dedicated funds allocated for such initiatives which can be broadly described as infrastructure related funding. ADB has recently been involved in one such project with the Indian government which involves a time bound complete road map for the installation and supply of solar and storage systems, EVs and electric charging stations. Moreover, Germany is leading the way in Europe. Chancellor Merkel just recently announced additional government measures to incentivize consumers to buy or switch to EVs. This was part of the economic recovery/stimulus package she recently announced on account of covid-19, with an estimated €2.2bn in subsidies. The structure/benchmark for this starts off with a €6,000 subsidy/cash incentive for every EV which costs up to €40,000 which a consumer buys. Followed up with contributions from the manufacturer as, this number could reach approximately €9,000. A further sales tax reduction from 19% to 16% puts the cherry on the cake.
Concluding this article, I’ll share a few interesting facts about EVs, from a consumer’s view point:
- EVs on one full charge can travel a distance of approximately 300-330miles, this of course will vary slightly from country to country based on the terrain and local conditions. Just like with conventional cars.
- EVs can power our homes, pilot projects already underway at various islands across the world. Just like a typical solar and storage system.
