Electric Vehicles

Let’s be clear. The global automotive market is electrifying quickly, not slowly. Norway is already at nearly 100% electric passenger vehicle sales. China is at 50% of new vehicles being electric. Nepal — Nepal! Sherpas and Mount Everest Nepal! — is seeing 70% of new cars being fully electric now. Europe, China, and the rest of the world have decided that electric is not optional, it is inevitable.

Canada’s Big Three subsidiaries seem to be the last ones clinging desperately to internal combustion engines. Their request to Prime Minister Carney is transparently regressive, like Kodak asking governments to ban digital photography or Blockbuster demanding protection from streaming.

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is gaining serious momentum around the world. Multiple countries, including the United States, have already passed a passenger EV tipping point— when sales reach critical mass, after which adoption accelerates. In the United States, owning a light-duty EV is now cheaper than owning a gas-powered car over a vehicle’s lifespan. Thanks to ongoing savings from fuel, less maintenance, and other recurring benefits, RMI analysis determined that EVs save US drivers an estimated $1,000 or more annually.

At the beginning of the century, China’s leadership laid out plans to dominate the technologies of the future. Once a nation of bicycles China is now the world’s leader in EVs.

For Guangzhou’s more than 18 million people, the roar of the rush hour has become a hum.

“When it comes to EVs, China is 10 years ahead and 10 times better than any other country,” says auto sector analyst Michael Dunne.

More people believe misinformation about electric vehicles than disagree with it and even EV owners tend to believe the myths, our new research shows.

We investigated the prevalence of misinformation about EVs in four countries – Australia, the United States, Germany and Austria. Unfortunately, we found substantial agreement with misinformation across all countries.