Trend – Combustion Engine Out, Electric Motor In

Plug-in electric cars in UK (Go Ultra Low)

Nikkei recently posted on the latest movement to electric vehicles from the Japanese perspective – "Race underway to perfect successors to internal combustion engine."

Volvo Cars' T8 Twin Engine Range – S90, V90, XC60 and XC90 T8 Twin Engine AWD Inscription, Crystal White Pearl

The announcement on the ban of conventional petrol and diesel car sales from 2040 in the UK made a big splash worldwide, even though it's more than 20 years from now.

Other countries are now pursuing electric transportation instead of being hostages of emissions too. China set a quota of 8% New Energy Vehicles from 2018, 10% from 2019 and 12% from 2020.

Countries such Norway, Netherlands, Germany and even India (where EV sales are low) are considering the shift solely to EVs. In the case of Norway, plug-in sales already peaked at 42% share!

Setting targets for 2030 or 2040 is vulnerable for change, but the signals are strong enough to discourage manufacturers from investing in future ICE technology, we think.

Carmakers are now deciding to develop models with the intent of offering a plug-in version of basically every model coming out in the future.

Volvo announced that from 2019 that all new models will be at least hybrids.

Even more recently, BMW announced the following"

"Electrification is one of the central pillars of the BMW Group's corporate strategy NUMBER ONE > NEXT and the company has announced that all brands and model series can be electrified, with a full-electric or plug-in hybrid drivetrain being offered in addition to the combustion engine option. Additional electrified models will be brought to market in the coming years and beyond 2020, the company's next generation vehicle architecture will be structured in order to enable new models also to be offered as a full-electric vehicle."

Toyota apparently would like to leave the internal combustion engine behind by 2050, but it still believes in hydrogen fuel cells.

Nikkei notes that the switch to EVs could be tough for the Japanese industry, be as "contingent of manufacturers producing parts for conventional cars could make ambitious policy changes a challenge."

Regardless, the change over to EVs is underway. It's just a matter of time before ICE is out.

Source: Nikkei

Source: Trend – Combustion Engine Out, Electric Motor In