Member-only story
2020 was the Year Electric Vehicles Broke Through
After years of low sales, electric vehicles look like they’re on a path to dominance
Despite the global economic down-turn caused by the COVID crisis, electric vehicles (EVs) had a strong year. Sales grew 43% year-over-year to 3.2 million vehicles in 2020. Better yet, market share increased from 2.5% in 2019 to 4.2% in 2020.
The first modern electric vehicles came to market in 2010. It wasn’t until 2017 that electric vehicles made up even one percent of vehicles sold globally. At this pace, electric vehicles will continue to swallow an ever-larger portion of the global market.
China remains the largest market for electric vehicles, selling over 1.3 million units. However, European countries saw the strongest growth, increasing by 137% for the continent as a whole.
The US market showed moderate growth as well. While electric sales grew just 4%, this result looks better since the overall car market was down 16%.
Among manufacturers, Tesla dominated the market once again, selling about 500,000 units. The Model 3 was the best-selling model…
