Thus far, electric vehicles have been trendy in the consumer vehicle market, especially as these cars are being developed for ever-longer distances between charges. The demand for electric commercial fleets, particularly for heavy vehicles, hasn’t quite yet arrived because of distance demands and the long turnover time for such fleets. However, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electric vehicles will comprise a significant percentage of the commercial vehicle market by 2040.
In 20 years, BloombergNEF projects “electric models taking 56% of light commercial vehicle sales in Europe, the U.S. and China within the next two decades, plus 31% of the medium commercial market.” They continue, “Heavy trucks will prove the hardest segment for electrics to crack, with the latter’s sales limited to 19% in 2040. Their use case will mostly be in shorter-distance applications.” Electric buses are forecast to make up an astonishing 81% of all municipal bus sales by that date.
The next two decades will be an exciting time for electric vehicles, as technological advances come at an ever-increasing pace, prices drop for batteries and other materials, and upfront costs of electric vehicles fall. Commercial fleets are an important part of the mix of emissions from the transportation sector, since fleets tend to be large and heavy vehicles tend to be heavier and less fuel-efficient than consumer vehicles. In addition, BloombergNEF predicts the number of passenger cars will continue to rise globally until 2030, making commercial fleets even more critical to lowering overall transportation emissions.
See Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s original post here.