6 million electric vehicles will be shipped in 2022

Six million electric cars, both battery electric and plug-in hybrid will be shipped in 2022 with China and Europe to lead shipments, according to new research from Gartner.

The research, Forecast Analysis: Electric Vehicle Shipments, Worldwide, notes there will be two million more cars shipped this year compared to 2021.

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The popularity of electric vehicles continues on an upward trajectory, in December last year Europe sold more EVs than diesel cars and by 2025, it is expected that battery electric vehicles will become the most demanded engine across Europe from 2025.

Electric vehicle maker Tesla posted a record profit of $5.5 billion and saw deliveries of its cars soar for its fourth quarter and annual results earlier today.

With China imposing a mandate on automakers requiring that EVs make up 40 percent of all sales by 2030 and automakers establishing new factories for manufacturing electric cars, Gartner estimates that Greater China will account for 46 percent of global EV shipments in 2022.

Greater China will take the number one position in shipments globally, shipping 2.9 million EVs in 2022. Western Europe is on pace to ship 1.9 million units in 2022, ranking number two in EV shipments. North America is expected to be the third highest region in shipments at 855.3 thousand EVs in 2022.

As governments across the world introduce new regulations and incentives to fuel EV sales, the automotive industry is also increasing investment in companies that provide charging infrastructure and vehicle battery technology to support and bolster the transition to EVs by consumers and businesses.

Gartner forecasts that the number of global public EV chargers will grow to 2.1 million units in 2022, up from 1.6 million units in 2021.

At COP26 in November 2021, the Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Council agreed that vehicle manufacturers will commit to selling only zero emission vehicles by 2040, and earlier in leading markets, putting pressure on the automotive sector to prepare for the decarbonisation in transportation.

Jonathan Davenport, research director at Gartner said, “EVs are an important powertrain technology to help reduce CO2 emissions from the transportation sector."

“The ongoing shortage of chips will impact the production of EVs in 2022, and while shipments of vans and trucks are currently small, their shipments will grow rapidly as commercial owners see the financial and environmental benefit of electrifying their fleets,” he said.

Gartner predicts that electric cars will represent 95 percent of total EV shipments in 2022 and the remainder will be split between buses, vans and heavy trucks.

To foster the transition to EVs, automotive manufacturers will have to address several factors such as lowering the price of EVs and batteries, recycling EV batteries, offering a wider selection of vehicle models with more extensive driving range and improving charging infrastructure, according to Gartner.

Davenport said, “Additionally, a major issue that must be addressed is lack of fast-charging availability for home and public charging.

“Utility providers will need to increase their investments in smart grid infrastructure to cope with the growing consumption of electricity. Additionally, to meet climate change ambitions, countries which utilise fossil fuels to generate electricity will need to redesign their power generation to respond to the transition.”