Electric vehicle revolution is accelerating
Electric Vehicles have been all over the news in recent months, with implications for investors in existing automotive manufacturers and supply chains. Volvo announced that ‘every Volvo it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor’, with FT reporting it made ‘it the first traditional carmaker to call time on vehicles powered solely by an internal combustion engine. … From 2019 it will only make three types of cars: pure-electric, plug-in hybrids, and so-called “mild” hybrids combining a small petrol engine with a large battery.’ A Barclays auto analyst cited Volvo’s move — together with barriers in China — as reason that ‘Tesla will face intense competition by next decade’ (Fortune) FT Lex argue ‘Markets have long since priced disruption into the shares of car companies. They are cheap to the point of trading below their suppliers.’ (5 Jul)
Nissan expects up to 20 percent of Europe sales to be zero emission cars by 2020, according to Reuters, a week after French ‘Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot said France would aim to end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040 and become carbon neutral 10 years later.’ (10 Jul)
China could field nearly half of new electric car models by 2020, Reuters quote a AlixPartners study that ‘Chinese automakers are on track to produce 49 of the 103 new electric car models that will be launched globally by 2020’ (12 Jul). In possibly related news, it has emerged that ‘Global automakers call on China to ease “impossible” electric car rules’ saying they would severely disrupt their businesses. (Reuters, 13 Jul).
Business Green report ‘a record 22,480 plug-in cars were registered in the UK during the first half of 2017, an increase of 14.3 per cent on 2016’ (‘Electric vehicles sales surge delivers record-breaking performance’, 13 Jul).
Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s report ‘The Electric Car Revolution Is Accelerating’ (6 Jul), on Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s long-term outlook for electric vehicles which forecasts that ‘Electric cars will be as cheap as gasoline models by 2025’ and ‘Battery manufacturing capacity will triple in the next four years’. Bloomberg Gadfly’s Liam Denning says the report forecast ‘has sales of electric vehicles overtaking traditional ones in 2038’ and ‘suggests electric vehicles account for all the growth in global vehicle sales within a decade from now.’ (13 Jul)
The Financial Times long read (Lex in-depth: Together in electric dreams, 6 Jul ($)) says ‘while Tesla’s share price has soared, the gloom surrounding traditional carmakers seems overdone as a collaborative future beckons’ in a comprehensive overview of the EV market, including graph (below) showing increased range and competition among car makers. They also report that Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell ‘hit back against predictions that electric vehicles threaten a collapse in demand for hydrocarbons’ (FT ($), 10 Jul). In a lighter read, Business Insider (How the electric car became the future of transportation, 2 Jul) remind us that ‘electric automobiles are nothing new’ and take a look at their rich history through the photo archives.
(This originally was sent on 17 July to The Chronicle subscribers, sign up here to get an email summary in your inbox every few weeks).
