Largest EV Countries in the World

The list of countries with the most electric vehicles is an interesting mix of the usual suspects as well as some surprises. The country with the most EVs is the U.S. which is followed closely by China.

China which is the world’s most populous country has got not only the highest number of electric vehicle cars, but also the most number of EV bikes and buses. In fact China leads the world in electric buses and bikes by a massive margin and the other countries are not even close. The country’s unique capitalistic system which is controlled heavily by the government has allowed it to become a leader in the usage of Electric Vehicles. China had targeted to install more than 200,000 EV cars in 2015 and more than 500,000 in 2016. The government gives a huge amount of incentives and also mandated its car makers to source a high percentage of its new cars from EV going forward.  More than 1% of the total cars in China are now EV based.

Also read How China Became The King Of Electric Vehicles

United States is not a surprise given that it is home to the cutting edge technologies as well as the biggest proponent of Electric Vehicle – Tesla. The Elon Musk led car maker has become a household name almost all over the world and has wowed consumers with its almost space age cars that not only look great but drive beautifully as well. The country had registered more than 150,000 EV cars in 2016. This pace may slow down as Donald Trump has said that he would water down many of the regulation which prevents high carbon emissions from vehicles. The U.S. has around 0.8% of its cars being EVs.

Japan was the No.3 country with more than 150,000 EVs installed. It is not surprising given that Japan is home to some of the biggest automakers in the world such as Toyota, Honda and Suzuki. It also has a high population density with a high per capita income making it an ideal country for high EV deployment. The Japanese government has also saturated the country with the deployment of a large number of EV charging points making it easy for its carmakers to put in EVs. Toyota Prius is one of the most famous and highest selling Plug In Electric Hybrid Vehicle in the world.

Toyota Prius

Netherlands was the surprising No. 4 country in terms of EVs installed. The country had a large number of PHEVs as compared to BEVs. Netherlands give a high amount of tax incentives for both EV charging points as well as buying PHEVs, and BEVs. Netherlands now has one of the highest ratios of EVs as percentage of the total car population along with Norway. The country had almost 100,000 EVs as of 2016.

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The small country of Norway was another surprise at No.5 as the government has heavily supported the EV industry by giving a high tax rebate on the registrations of EVs in the country. The country which has 100,000 EVs now plans to have 400,000 EVs running in the country by 2020 and completely electricity its entire car population by 2025. Norway has a very high penetration rate of EV as compared to other countries.

There are other countries which are also investing heavily in deploying EVs such as France, UK, Canada and Germany though they have not been aggressive enough.  The Paris climate change agreement calls for 100 million EV cars by 2030 while IE is targeting  140 million by 2030 and 900 million by 2050.