The global electric vehicle sales jumped by more than 100% in 2021, translating to nearly 6.5 million units sold worldwide. Tesla emerged as the market leader with a 14% market share, followed by Volkswagen with a 12% share and SGMW with an 11% global share. The demand for EVs was strong in China followed by Europe and the US. China and Europe together accounted for 85% of total global EV sales.

The total global car market grew just 4% in 2021 and EVs accounted for ~9% of passenger car sales last year. China witnessed over 3.2 million units sales of EVs in 2021, which translated to 50% of the electric cars sold worldwide. This compares to around 1.2 million cars sold in the country in 2020. In Europe, Tesla Model 3 was the most-selling electric car in 2021. Audi, Skoda, and VW from Volkswagen were also popular in Europe.  Europe accounted for more than 25% of total global EV sales in 2021. In the US, just 4% of the cars sold in 2021 were EVs. The country witnessed close to 535,000 unit sales in the last year.

Though the Indian market possesses a strong potential for EV sales, the country has lagged in building demand. India alone has an estimated battery capacity of 158 GWh annually, by FY 2030 which provides large investment opportunities. The main reasons are expensive cars when compared to the traditional cars available in the market, as well as lack of sufficient charging stations, proper vendor ecosystem, and incentives. The country could be a great center for manufacturing given its cheap labor availability.

If the country can focus on building a supply chain by manufacturing batteries domestically, improving the overall infrastructure, and making available capital for original equipment and battery manufacturers it could bring down costs drastically and improve competitiveness in the global market. The recent Budget 2022 is also supportive of the EVs in India. In recent news, Ford has also made its stance clear to start manufacturing EVs in India, after it was shortlisted as one of the twenty names under the Indian Government’s PLI scheme for the automobile sector.