Electric vehicles are here to stay
Electric vehicles (EVs) have been around for a while and are here to stay as more and more focus is placed on the UK government's target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Electric vehicles enjoyed bumper sales in the UK in 2019, overtaking plug-in hybrids for the first time. Sales of EVs remained healthy throughout 2020, with a year-on-year increase in registrations of new electric and hybrid vehicles of 67% – and that’s despite overall car sales during the spring Coronavirus lockdown falling to their lowest level since 1971.
Even during the early Coronavirus lockdown of 2020, people were apparently researching their options for electric vehicles, with Google Trends showing searches for ‘electric cars 2020', ‘best electric cars' and ‘electric cars' seeing huge increases during May 2020.
And in late 2020 the introduction of so-called green number plates made it much easier to spot zero emissions vehicles on UK roads.
But there's more to e-transport than personal EVs, despite the fact that according to BloombergNEF's Electric Vehicle Outlook there are over 12 million on the road globally. Beyond the personal EVs, “there are over one million commercial EVs, including buses, delivery vans and trucks, and there are over 260 million electric mopeds, scooters, motorcycles and three-wheelers.”
Let's take a closer look at some of the electric transport currently available and how it's being electrified for the future.
Electric personal transport
Electric options for so-called micro-mobility is a good place to start, with the range of electrified transport having expanded rapidly since they first emerged in 2017.
According to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Global EV Outlook 2021, e-scooters, e-bikes and electric mopeds are now available in over 650 cities worldwide.
