Electric vehicles, including motorcycles and scooters, have come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Still, several pain points still exist, even among riders and drivers who are open to EVs in the first place. Range anxiety and charging time are two big ones. Although EV manufacturers tout the comparative ease and lesser expense of maintenance, the fact that they’re comparatively more expensive to buy than many piston-powered vehicles is also a major factor.
According to a May, 2021 report from BloombergNEF, that last problem is not far from being solved. The report is called Hitting the EV Inflection Point, and was prepared for Europe’s Transport and Environment campaign. Upon thorough analysis of the market, this report came to the conclusion that EVs will cost less to build than piston-powered vehicles by 2027, at the absolute latest.
That’s just six years from now, and includes EVs across all segments. While different EV segments will reach cost parity with their gasoline-powered counterparts at different times, the fact that they should all reach this point in under a decade is encouraging if you’re concerned about environmental impacts.
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However, BNEF and T&E say, individual country governments across Europe must act now to tighten existing carbon dioxide emissions standards in order to encourage the continued rapid growth across all types of EVs. An increased sense of urgency will spur OEMs to make better, less expensive vehicles to meet those standards, as well as encourage citizens to buy them.
Incentivizing adoption of EVs will, of course, make the switch easier for regular people to make, as Norway has quietly been pointing out for years. According to T&E’s estimates, all these market forces coming together to stimulate EV adoption could lead to 100 percent of new vehicle sales in Europe being purely electric by 2035. However, if the market is left to evolve as things currently stand, it predicts only 85 percent of new European vehicles will be EVs by that time.
Predictions, even when made taking as much data as possible into account, are still predictions and not facts. There’s a lot of time, legislative ground, and technological innovation to cover between now and 2035, or even 2027. As we all saw with the onset of the global pandemic, surprising circumstances can and do rear their heads from time to time. So, what do you think of this prediction? Do you already own an electric bike, scooter, or other vehicle? If so, how do you like it? If not, why would or wouldn’t you consider owning one in the future?
Sources: BloombergNEF, Transport and Environment