Many electric car articles today focus on EV trends, battery development, resources, and manufacturing.
Finally, electric cars are working their way back into the mainstream, and sales are up.
This time the trend is worldwide, with manufacturers and marketers in many countries participating. This business aspect of electric cars is critical to their continued success this time around. The trends are tracked here.
Business Tracks:
Nissan is selling the Leaf at a steady pace, and building a new battery plant.
Wheego moved 300 units last year, and projects sales of 2,500 in 2011.
EV chargers are being installed all over the place. The US has thousands of units installed and more to come. The UK and other countries are installing many more as well.
Demand for the Mitsubishi i Miev is up again. The original production goal of 5,000 cars for 2010 was increased to 8,500 and recently to 9,000 based on demand for the cars. The longer term goal of 20,000 cars by 2013, has been upped to 30,000.
Legislative Tracks:
In Germany there is recent legislation supporting 1 Million Electric Cars by 2020. As part of this effort, the Smith EV Company is sending a fleet of vans for testing.
China wants 1 million cars per year!
The US Government has set a goal of 1 million EVs on its roads by 2015.
Ireland has set a target of 10% Electric Cars by 2020. The Irish Government has announced a rebate program worth 5,000 Euros per vehicle.
Japan, Israel and Denmark are also very interested in electric car production. The biggest EV producer in the near term, however, might turn out to be China. The country wants to produce 500,000 EVs and hybrids by the end of 2011.
Japan is gearing up for more electric cars by building a network of standardized quick charging stations.
In the bigger picture, where is the electric car going and more importantly when? There is no exact answer to that question, but there are any number of opinions.
Some people think the electric car will never be nearly as popular as the internal combustion engine vehicle. Others think dominance by the electric car is just around the corner. The answer is probably somewhere in between.
For more interesting electric car articles, check some of these news sources:
