Applying the filters below will filter all articles, data, insights and projects by the topic area you select. Not sure where to find something? Search all of the site's content. Electric vehicle sales have been growing exponentially due to falling costs, improving technology and government support.
Electric Vehicles EVs produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than internal combustion engine vehicles, such as gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. Once the electric grid shifts to zero-carbon power, emissions will be even lower. For this reason, ramping up EVs will be one of the most important steps in reducing transportation emissions β alongside reducing private vehicle travel and shifting to public transit, biking or walking.
There are already a number of countries switching to EVs at impressive rates. This target is within reach given recent exponential growth in EV sales. While EV sales have started accelerating at different years for different countries, they are all following a similar S-curve pattern of growth. This is a typical trajectory for the adoption of innovative technologies.
Once a technology reaches a tipping point β for example, when EVs become cheaper than traditional gas- or diesel-powered vehicles β the trajectory curves upward. When it comes to EVs, no countries have reached this slowing-down phase yet, though Norway may be close. The initial acceleration and eventual slowdown create an S-curve. It will never be a perfect S-shape because policy changes and social and economic factors can speed up or slow down rates of adoption, but the overall pattern holds in most cases.
Falling costs and advancing technology have made it possible for EV sales to accelerate faster today than in the past. That's about three times faster than the global average, which took three years to grow from 0. Israel jumped from 0. It took the world more than five years to achieve that much growth, from 0. So far most of the EV leaders have been high-income countries, like in Scandinavia, or countries with a lot of market power, like China.
