In a report on the development of the global electric vehicle market, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that in 2012, only about 120,000 electric cars were sold worldwide. By 2021, the number of electric cars sold each week was more than the total number of electric cars sold in the whole of 2012. The momentum of the electric vehicle market continues to hold, 2 million electric cars sold worldwide in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 75% over the same period in 2021.
The impressive numbers in the IEA report show the dynamic development of the electric vehicle market. According to experts, the ambitious goals of energy transformation, the trend of greening the environment, in particular, the policy to support electric vehicle production, created a strong driving force for this industry to grow significantly.
The level of subsidies and incentives of countries for the electric vehicle industry will nearly double in 2021, to nearly 30 billion USD. More and more countries are announcing the goal of gradually switching to clean fuel vehicles.
To strengthen the commitment to accelerate the transition from fossil energy to renewable energy, last week, President Joko Widodo signed a presidential instruction that requires the central and regional authorities to use electric vehicles for official purposes.
According to the Office of the President of Indonesia, the transition to electric vehicles would relieve the pressure on the fuel subsidy and help achieve national energy self-sufficiency, as well as save the country's foreign exchange by reducing fuel imports.
Meanwhile, the Thai government has set a target of reaching about 700,000 domestic electric vehicles by 2030, or 30% of total auto manufacturing. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy has recently enacted many policies to encourage electric vehicles, such as reducing taxes and increasing subsidies for both consumers and manufacturers. With encouragement from the government, many large enterprises are actively pursuing electric vehicle assembly, battery production and the construction of charging stations.
Calling the growth of the electric vehicle market a "silent revolution", Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that "India wants to be aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) in the energy sector in the 'amrit kaal' of the next 25 years". The Indian government offers many incentives to boost demand for electric vehicles. From the people's side, more and more consumers accept electric vehicles as the main means of transportation.
According to Clean Energy Canada (CEC), Canada has an opportunity to reposition itself as a leader in EV production, thereby transforming an industry worth hundreds of billions of CAD each year, to become more environmentally friendly. By combining expertise in automotive assembly, parts manufacturing, battery manufacturing and mining with battery materials development, Canada is ideally positioned to lead the global electric vehicle market. Canada's domestic EV battery supply chain could support up to 250,000 jobs by 2030 and add 48 billion USD to the Canadian economy annually.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by US President Joe Biden in August, the US government will provide billions of dollars in new funding for electric vehicle production, and 3 billion USD for the US Postal Service (USPS) to buy more EVs and charging infrastructure. The world's No. 1 economy has set a target that by 2030, 50% of all new vehicles sold are to be electric or plug-in hybrid electric models.
China remains the leading market for electric vehicle sales. In the first quarter of 2022, sales in the world's most populous country more than doubled from the same period in 2021 and accounted for most of the global growth.
However, in emerging and developing economies, the electric vehicle manufacturing industry has not made a breakthrough. This means that the electric vehicle market still has a lot of room for growth if governments of countries promptly issue appropriate support policies.
