It is no secret that electric vehicles will be the choice car of the future, but just how soon will that future become our reality? For the year 2017, The Consumer Federation of America has projected that the sales of electric vehicles will increase by more than 100 percent against the 2016 numbers.
As you probably know, Nissan just launched the 2018 Leaf. The Nissan Leaf is known as the world’s all-time best-selling highway-capable electric car in history with over 250,000 being sold through 2016. It is the only 100% battery powered car in Nissan’s lineup to date, sparking other car manufacturers to follow suit and launch their own versions of electric vehicles.
Launching in 2010 with high projections in place, the car has not quite lived up to those projections. With the launch of the 2018 model, automakers can hope that this number will rise despite challenges amongst the electric car industry.
While automakers like Tesla have seen the vision for quite some time, catching the interest of consumers worldwide has been difficult. In December 2016, sales of electric vehicles made up 1.43% of new car sales in the US, this is the highest it has ever been. In a report released earlier this year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicted that electric cars and plug-in hybrids could come to represent 35 percent of new vehicle sales by 2040.
Opinions and projections seem to greatly differ in terms of the growth and success of electric and hybrid vehicle sales. Sales for new battery only vehicles are still below 1% of the US Market. So only time will really tell just how quickly the EV market will grow.