one needs to worry about the time to recharge, the cost to recharge, and the cost of the vehicle and the maintenance of the vehicle.
Infrastructure is about a lot more than just charging stations and range.
Also, how is the energy being produced that gets converted to the electric charge that those EVs will need? Coal, petro-based fuels, natural gas? If that's where the energy comes from, then, it's a defeat of the agenda which has EVs being produced to begin with.
Despite a slow start for the electric vehicle market, a new report from Lux Research says that the market for EV infrastructure will rise significantly worldwide in the next decade.
In 2012 only about 120,000 EV charging station units were sold. But by 2020 that number is expected to grow to 1.3 million, increasing the market from $140 million in 2012 to $1.15 billion in 2020.
Other findings:
- Europe will lead the global market with 480,000 units sold in 2020.
- China will have a slow start but reach 277,000 annual unit sales by 2020.
- By 2020, 23% of all energy consumed by plug-ins will come from China.
- Ford, Daimler, GM, BMW, and Nissan form the core of charging infrastructure partnerships
“Success for EVSE will ultimately follow the success of electric vehicles,” said Kevin See, Lux Research Senior Analyst and the lead author of the report. “It’s critical for those invested in charging stations to find the applications where there’s substantial growth.”
But I think it also goes the other way around. The more that’s invested in EV infrastructure the more comfortable consumers will be purchasing electric vehicles. The less “range anxiety” the better.
Get the full report here.
Photo: Flickr/Alan Trotter
