Zero-Emission Vehicle Adoption Is Accelerating, But Stronger Push Is Needed
At this year’s COP27 held in Egypt, the BloombergNEF (BNEF) research company released its study for the 2022 Zero-Emission Vehicles Factbook. The ZEV Factbook shows that the adoption of zero-emission vehicles has accelerated over the past year across almost all markets and vehicle segments.
The finding from the ZEV Factbook shows that global momentum has accelerated toward zero-emission road transport throughout 2022. Passenger electric vehicle sales in 2022 are on track for more than 10 million units, while in 2021 that figure was 6.6 million units that were sold.
New electric car sales globally in 2021 were at 8.7%, while just in the first half of 2022 new electric car sales accounted for over 13% of sales. There has also been a significant increase in the global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity which increased by 38% since 2021, and overall spending on clean road transport worldwide is set to exceed $450 billion this year.
The Zero-Emission Vehicle Factbook was created by the BNEF along with the Accelerating to Zero Coalition and in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, to coincide with COP27 – the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The first ZEV Factbook was released at the COP26 in Glasgow with the 2022 factbook showing the progress that has been made toward achieving global net-zero emission for the electric transportation sector.
The study shows that the adoption of zero-emission vehicles has already reduced oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, with an estimated 1.7 million barrels of oil not being used by the end of 2022. That’s up from 1.5 million barrels per day in 2021 which was not used or needed. The numbers included the use of several types of electric vehicles including cars, buses, motorcycles, scooters, vans, and trucks. These electric vehicles are currently eliminating 152 million metric tons of CO2 per year, with the large fleet of electric two- and three-wheelers in Asia making the biggest contribution.
The Zero-Emission Vehicle Factbook was warmly welcomed by Alok Sharma, COP26 President, “We are delighted to welcome the publication of BloombergNEF’s Zero-Emission Vehicles Factbook, to mark the launch of the Accelerating to Zero Coalition. The Accelerating to Zero Coalition is a new partnership between initiatives to align activities and amplify messages to grow the group of leaders committed to an accelerated zero-emission vehicle transition.”
“The BNEF Factbook shows that, despite the global energy crisis, the zero-emission vehicle transition has continued to accelerate since we launched the ZEV declaration at COP26. It also highlights that the ZEV transition is key to permanently ending our dependence on oil,” said Sharma.
Although the report does sound promising, it does note that new commitments to ZEVs from both automakers and governments have slowed over the past year. The national targets set by automakers and governments to phase out internal combustion engines (ICE) cover nearly 41% of the global passenger vehicle market by 2035, which haven’t changed much since last year.
Automakers with 2035 ICE phase-out targets account for 23% of the market, a slight increase from 19% a year ago. If you include automakers’ targets for 2040, it increases to 30%.
Aleksandra O’Donovan, lead author of the report and the head of BNEF’s electric vehicle research team, noted that there is a growing gap between wealthy and emerging economies on ZEV adoption. “While many of the indicators in this report are pointing in the right direction, most countries still have a long way to go before we can be confident that we are on track for a net-zero emission transport sector by mid-century,” stated O’Donovan.
National, regional, and local governments must continue to be ambitious and implement stable, long-term policies that promote the growth of zero-emission transport and manage the phase-out of ICE vehicles, the report concluded.
Nigel Topping, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for the UK, COP26 added:“We call on more actors to come forward next year and make and implement ambitious commitments to transition to zero-emission vehicles and reap the benefits of cleaner air, jobs, economic growth, and keeping our Paris Agreement goals within reach.”
The full ZEV Factbook is available for download via this link.
Source: BNEF
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
