Electric car sales are gaining in number, but still represent only a fraction of the global market. It took five years to sell the first million electric vehicles. In 2018 that level took only six months. Tesla's Model 3 is the first version to crack the 100,000 unit mark. Nissan's Leaf and BAIC EC-Series are not far behind. Norway is the outlyer in this data set; the government heavily subsidizes electric car purchases. It is poised to reach its 2025 goal of zero auto emissions; already a third of its passenger vehicles are all electric. China leads the world in electric car infrastructure with the greatest number of charging stations to service over a million new hubrid plug-ins using the roads in 2018.
The US lags behind, but electric vehicle ownership is increasing as the chart below shows. Electric vehicles account for only 1% of the US vehicle fleet; however in California they account for 10%. Are electric vehicles destined to become mainstream, or just a passing fancy as they were at the beginning of the last century? Performance and price will tell that tale.
