Informe El medio ambiente en Europa: Estado y perspectivas 2020

PART 3
BOX 17.3
Electric vehicle diffusion
Electric vehicles have started
diffusing, and the total global stock
passed 3 million in 2017 (Figure 17.4).
Annual sales in 2017 were 54 % higher
than in 2016, surpassing 1 million units,
with more than half of those global
sales in China (IEA, 2018b). Only a
few countries have fairly high market
shares: Norway (39.2 %), Iceland (12 %)
and Sweden (6.3 %). The remainder
have shares under 3 %. In 2017,
members of the International Energy
Agency’s Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI)
set the aspirational goal of achieving a
30 % market share for electric vehicles
in each country by 2030. The EVI
members comprise Canada, China,
Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan,
Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, the United Kingdom and the
United States.
In all of the countries that are pioneering
the diffusion of electric vehicles, public
policies at national and local levels are
playing a major role. The most prominent
are direct consumer incentives such
as vehicle purchase subsidies or tax
exemptions. There is a clear correlation
between the strength of financial
incentives and the speed of diffusion
(Wesseling, 2016). Even with grants,
however, the up-front costs of electric
vehicles remain higher than those of other
cars. Early adopters are often middle‐aged,
well-educated, affluent, urban men, who
are motivated by pro-environmental
attitudes, a desire to save on fuel costs
and an active interest in new technology
(Nilsson and Nykvist, 2016). These factors
point to the importance of complementary
measures that can shift public perceptions
and drive changes in business practice,
as well as the value of policy support for
electrifying public transport.
Measures used across Europe include
financial support to the electric vehicle
industry; public investments in charging
infrastructure or subsidies for home
chargers; public procurement of electric
vehicles (e.g. for municipal vehicle fleets);
state aid for electric public transport;
indirect consumer incentives such
as preferential access to bus lanes,
free or preferential parking, access to
low‐emission zones, free charging at
public stations and road toll exemptions;
consumer outreach and education
policies; and regulatory incentives such
as sales targets for electric vehicle
manufacturers or bans on sales of internal
combustion engine vehicles (EEA, 2016a;
CCC, 2018; EC, 2018i). ■
FIGURE 17.4
Cumulative global fleet of electric vehicles
Million electric vehicles
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
China USA Europe Others
Source:
IEA (2018a).
390 SOER 2020/Responding to sustainability challenges