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43% of World's Electric Cars Bought in 2014

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:45AM   
from the electrify-me dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

We've been reading headlines about Tesla, Nissan Leaf, and several other recent arrivals in the EV market the past few years, but the growth curves are starting to look very interesting:

We already wrote about the recent ZSW report that found that the world electric car market was up to 740,000 at the end of 2014. Other cool stats noted there included:

• China saw 54,000 electric cars registered in 2014, a growth of 120%.
• The US grew 69% to hit 290,000 total electric cars, about 39% of all electric cars on the road.
• Japan grew 45% to hit 110,000 total electric cars.
• The overall global electric car market saw a growth of 76%.

However, we missed sharing a big one, but thanks to reve putting it in a headline and a hat tip from Bob Wallace, we’re getting it now. Actually, you just saw it in the title: ~43% of the world’s electric cars were bought in 2014.

Coupled with the ongoing steep drop in the price of solar panels, we are quickly approaching an epochal tipping point in transportation, energy, and many other realms. My family is ready to switch to an EV as soon as a mass market car is available where we are. How about other Soylentils, do you plan to jump to an EV too, or hang on to your ICE?

• Re:I'll buy one when the economics catch up (Score: 5, Insightful) by RedBear on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:32AM

  by RedBear (1734) on Tuesday April 21 2015, @09:32AM (#173456)

  When I can buy an electric that can do the job of an ICE engine and not pay a price premium directly or indirectly by stealing from my neighbors to fund a subsidy, then and only then will I buy. That day is still a bit in the future for any hybrid I have looked at and still science fiction for all electric.
  I only have one vehicle in the household, I can usually walk to work so the Mrs. can have the car most days and that has worked out so far. But we do drive beyond the range of every all electric (other than the insanely expensive toys from Tesla Motors aimed at the high end performance market) I have seen from time to time so until they can either go three hundred real miles on a charge or recharge over lunch, no sale. Also the infrastructure to recharge needs to be available out here in flyover country.
  For a hybrid the additional cost of the hybrid drive needs to be less than the real world savings from the increase in fuel costs by remaining on ICE alone. These cost calculations must factor out the government subsidies, I refuse to base the decision on theft. I would even avoid buying (and being forced to benefit from the subsidy) if the difference were small in favor of the hybrid. A few hybrids are now selling well enough and for long enough the subsides are fading, hopefully this problem is starting to end.
  When math meets most 'green' tech it turns out that you aren't saving money at all, or just getting other people's money redistributed to you by the government. What is usually being bought, at a hefty premium, is egoboo. The ability to preen to the neighbors about how greener than thou you are for owning one.

  Meanwhile, back in the real world, the entire fossil fuel industry is being subsidized to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year [priceofoil.org]. Including a big chunk of my, you and your neighbors' taxes which either go directly to the oil industry in the form of huge multi-billion-dollar tax breaks and many other "subsidies", or go to support the military-industrial complex which largely exists to protect our nation's ability to have a constant supply of fossil fuels. We also subsidize corn like crazy, for both ethanol and food.

  The few tiny subsidies that are grudgingly being applied to some "green" technologies here and there can -- like the actual NASA and public broadcasting budgets -- rightly be classified as "chump change" by comparison. I realize that it isn't that easy to truly grasp just how much every gallon of gas really costs because those costs have been with us for decades and are well-distributed and hidden throughout the global economy, but anyone who is still favoring fossil fuel vehicles over hybrids or EVs because of some piddly little tax incentive (that many people won't even fully qualify for) has a very tenuous relationship with reality.

  The best thing you could possibly do to reduce your neighbors' tax bills is to help us all stop needing fossil fuels. There are plug-in hybrids on the market already with plenty of range suitable for your "flyover country" where you have limited charging options available. A good PHEV like the Chevy Volt or the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will probably let you do 50-80% of your driving on electric even if you can only charge at home. Either can be charged from a regular outlet in a few hours (less than overnight) and have around 50 miles of electric range. The Outlander PHEV is being sold for the same price as the regular ICE version. No premium.

  It's time to stop childishly referring to green technologies as being all about "egoboo". Open your eyes and learn about the real, quantifiable economic, societal, political and public health costs of fossil fuels. It doesn't matter how cheap the gas gets. We're all paying a hefty premium for every drop of it. The very idea that hybrids and EVs have a real premium attached in big-picture terms is laughable.

  --
  ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
  ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ

  Parent

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