Burdened for decades by low volumes and high costs, sales of electric vehicles are firmly on the rise.
Traditional internal combustion powertrains can no longer keep up with the stringent emission requirements set by governments around the world, paving the way for sales of battery electric vehicles, which will rise from 1.3% in 2018 to 16.4% in 2029, with an installed base of more than 100 million vehicles, according to forecasts by Abi Research.
"At the same time, carmakers are trying to allay consumer fears about electric cars by rapidly increasing battery capacities and using new storage technologies, such as silicon anodes and solid-state design. Thegoal is to increase cell energy density from 250 Wh/kg to more than 500 Wh/kg within the next 10 years," said James Hodgson, chief analyst at Abi Research.
A challenge for utilities
The expected growth in electric vehicles and battery energy density represents a considerable challenge for the utility sector in particular: energy demand for electric passenger vehicles will increase from 1.121 GWh in 2018 to 19.141 GWh.
"Although it represents a potential of nearly $20 billion in energy sales by 2028, this imposes an extraordinary effort on national grids as transmission system operators struggle to meet the load of EVs due to barriers at the end of the infrastructure, particularly line constraints, transformer limitations and synchronising uptake with renewable generation," Hodgson said.
