Electric vehicles experienced a massive boom in sales in 2020, despite the pandemic

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On Tuesday, EV-volumes.com, a Swedish-based consultancy agency, released a report about the global sales of electric vehicles in 2020. To the surprise of many, electric vehicles’ global sales experienced exceptional growth, increasing by 43%.

Combined, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEV) accounted for about 4.2% of the global car market in 2020. Compared to the year before, that’s a 2.5% increase. Overall, more than 3 million electric vehicles were sold in 2020, despite the fact that the world was hit by a pandemic.

However, from March to June, when the coronavirus was at its peak, sales of electric cars slammed. But as governments lifted restrictions, the sales of electric cars increased as well. As a result, in December of last year, global sales doubled from those in the same month in 2019.

Tesla was the dominating brand on the global market as it produced approximately half a million electric cars. Volkswagen positioned itself second and did quite well in the European market. At the same time, Europe became the biggest market for electric vehicles. In the process, it pushed China to the second position. 

This growth was because several governments already made plans to end sales of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles in the next ten years. Furthermore, government put tax benefits and significant incentives to boost the sales of electric vehicles. 

Viktor Irle, sales and marketing analyst at EV-volumes.com, believes that the trend is also propelled by an increase in government policies and incentives. He believes that electric cars are becoming increasingly popular because they are a better technology. 

According to Irle, once you take an electric vehicle for a test ride, there is no going back to a gasoline vehicle. At least that’s the case for a significant percentage of the people that have the chance to test an electric car. The purchase price of electric vehicles remains the most significant barrier for many people. Besides that, electric vehicles are way more budget-friendly and environment friendly. They emit zero emissions, and they are very reliable. Then there is the growing network of fast chargers that is quite convenient as well. 

Everything points to another strong year for electric vehicles as more than 150 new BEV and PHEV models are expected to hit the global market.

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