Global sales of combusion-engine vehicles peaked in 2018 and have only fallen since, according to the International Energy Agency's global outlook report. The Covid pandemic made it difficult to discern a trend, but now sales are recovering one is clear: electric vehicle sales growing year after year while fueled vehicles decline. Even so, EVs still account for only a small portion of sales.
This transition has already started. In fact, global sales of combustion engine cars are well past the peak and are now falling. As you can see in the chart, global sales peaked in 2018. This is calculated based on data from the International Energy Agency. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates this peak occurred one year earlier, in 2017. Sales of electric cars, on the other hand, are growing quickly.
Even Tesla is up year on year, though almost everything else about the brand is on fire—and not in the good way.
More than a half-dozen Tesla charging stations were torched near Boston on Monday, police said, in what appears to be the latest attack on the company owned by Elon Musk, the billionaire adviser to President Donald Trump.
Police officers and firefighters rushed to The Point Shopping Center, at 830 Constitution Ave. in Littleton, Massachusetts, at about 1:10 a.m. and found Tesla charging stations "engulfed in flames and heavy, dark smoke," according to a police statement.
Other manufacturers seem to have matured their EV offerings nicely in the last few years. I hear only good things about Hyundai's Ioniqs and the Nissan Leaf is relatively inexpensive—so long as you don't need too much range. If only VW's electric bus were not so pricey!
Previously:
• Sweden to build road that will charge EVs while driving
• Ford's putting back AM radio in vehicles, including EVs
• Rental giant Hertz replacing Teslas with gasoline cars
