What’s hindering EV adoption in different countries across the globe?

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With many governments striving to meet their part of the Paris Agreement climate change treaty that prioritises an increase in EVs, Dunstan Power, managing director of smart charging design consultancy Versinetic, takes a whistlestop look at where various countries around the world are on their EV adoption journeys, and the blockages affecting their respective EV uptake.

Dunstan Power, managing director of Versinetic

As the world moves towards electrifying its highways, each country’s level of EV adoption and its corresponding infrastructure challenges vary. Factors including social inequality, domestic wiring, infrastructure issues and standards, politics, and population density are just some of the variables at play when it comes to how receptive countries are and where they currently stand in welcoming EVs.

Most chargers concentrated around capital in Ireland

Starting with Ireland, with its five million population, there are 11.5 cars per EV charger, which is a good ratio compared to that of many other countries. Last year, 105,000 EVs were sold, making up 6% of the total number of cars that were sold in the country.

However, a barrier to increased EV uptake in Ireland is the density of chargers away from the main conurbations and main trunk roads.

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Dutch homes not set up for EV charging

Another EV success story is the Netherlands, with more public chargers than anywhere else in the world – six cars per charger.

Compared to Norway, it has three times the population – 17 million – within a much smaller landmass.

The Netherlands has deployed a unified payment system for charging posts. This simplification for EV users is a beneficial move that facilitates drivers charging their EVs, compared to other countries where payment systems and apps vary between charging stations and EV manufacturers.

The main challenge for the Netherlands in increasing EV adoption is its domestic property set-up, which is a three-phase system limited to as low as 32 Amps per phase. This means that, when charging a car such as the Nissan Leaf that only accepts single-phase charging at 32A (max), your home’s property set-up doesn’t leave much surplus capacity to run other domestic appliances at the same time off that phase.

Australia is lagging behind in its EV journey

From two very EV-forward countries in Europe, let’s look at one at the beginning of its EV journey; Australia.

Until recently, Australia had a right-wing government that was pro-fossil fuels. With the recent shift to a labour government that is progressively interested in and investing heavily in EVs, sales have taken off.

Australia, which has a population of around 25 million, is currently where the UK was in its EV evolution about four years ago. It has approximately 22 chargers per electric car.

Where it has a massive opportunity compared to the UK is with solar energy, both due to its geographical location and domestic property set-up. Some 30-40% of Australian homes are set up for solar power, which would allow the country to fully take advantage of EV solar charging, potentially accelerating EV adoption in the near future.

Currently, in Australia, any type of electric vehicle charger can be installed once it has passed electrical safety testing. At some point, once EV growth has reached a certain level, new government regulations will be introduced that may slow down EV growth, as has been the case with all countries on their EV journeys.

Interoperability proves roadblock in UK

The UK has a population of over 67 million, which is nearly three times the population of Australia. A total 23% of car sales were EVs in the UK in 2022, and this is expected to further increase in 2023.

While EV adoption has rocketed in the past few years, the corresponding number of charging stations needs to catch up. Currently, there are nearly 30 cars per charger, an exponential increase from six cars per charger in 2020.

With the vast array of charging operators, interoperability is critical in the UK. Drivers will pull up to a different CPO and need to install a new app with different payment methods and pricing, all of which present a negative experience and could disincentivise EV adoption.

However, the Government is aware of the issue and is taking steps to simplify EV charging with ‘The Electric Vehicles Smart Charge Point Regulations 2021’, which came into force in June 2022, and the recently announced Public Charge Point Regulations.

In the future, we are likely to see more unified payment methods and seamless ones such as ‘tap and go’ contactless.

German automotive industry stalling EV adoption

EV sales are in decline in Germany, which has a population of 83 million, with only 832,000 units being sold last year, a decrease on the previous year.

The German automotive industry is the biggest employer in any sector and has spent decades investing in diesel and petrol production, which, perhaps, is why less than 0.1% of the population has an electric vehicle. German automotive manufacturers are currently losing a competitive advantage to global automakers that are producing EVs and are subsequently lobbying the Government to relax electrification, which correlates to EV sales dropping.

Germany also has the same three-phase charging set-up as Norway and the Netherlands, with the same challenge for home charging.

Japanese automakers hijacking pure EV sales with hybrid vehicles

With a population of 125 million, Japan was an early adopter of EVs and the first country to adopt the fast-charging standard CHAdeMO for battery electric vehicles.

In 2010, Japan introduced the Toyota Prius, the first hybrid car with mass market appeal. As a nation, it is technologically advanced and has a high average income per head. It is also the first country to embrace Vehicle to Grid technology thanks to the Nissan Leaf – the go-to vehicle for V2G.

However, in 2022, only 2.1% of cars that were sold were EVs – roughly 77,000. That shockingly low number is due to the Japanese automakers, who successfully dominated the hybrid market initially, having hit pause on pure EVs – almost waiting to see which way the market might go before deciding which direction to move it. The industry in Japan is suffering from the same inertia as the German motor industry. Meanwhile, other EV automakers have overtaken them. The market is growing, however, with Japanese car manufacturers Honda and Nissan launching all-electric supermini Kei cars, which is positive.

Government intervention needed to provide charging in China

China is the world leader in EVs, with the sale of 5,900,000 cars in 2022 and just eight cars per charger. Its 1.4 billion population is tech-savvy, perhaps explaining why EV sales are growing 87% year-on-year. BYD is now the largest EV manufacturer, having overtaken Tesla.

The chargers in China seem to be underused, though – on average, once a day, according to a study by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. This 1% usage is problematic as more EVs are needed to make the stations economically viable. With the low-profit margins associated with having an EV charging station, government regulation will have to ensure that the quality of charging stations in China is maintained.

Norway is ahead of the game

While all countries face some challenges, Norway, with its population of 5.4 million, is becoming a world leader in EV uptake in many ways.

Norway is ahead of its 2025 target for all new vehicles sold from that date onwards to be EVs. In 2022, 79% of all cars sold in Norway were EVs – around 720,000 units. Norway has 25 cars per charger, which is less than Ireland but does not pose a problem as Norway’s total number of EVs exceeds Ireland’s by over 615,000. Therefore, although Norway has over 600% more EVs on the road than Ireland, its cars per charger are only 50% less than in the latter countries, meaning it has significantly more chargers than Ireland does.

Norway, an oil- and gas-rich country, has had the foresight to understand that the latter fuel sources are unsustainable, so it has heavily invested in EV infrastructure, and EV ownership has formed part of this strategy.

From the 1990s until the present day, Norway has implemented several perks for EV drivers. Incentives in Norway include half-price parking, waiving the 25% VAT, or providing grants of 20% on EV purchases. In addition, the Government has deployed lots of charging infrastructure to kickstart EV adoption in Oslo, which has been very successful.

Ramping up charging infrastructure and simplifying payment methods could help significantly drive EV adoption

From the countries we’ve examined, we can see that they are all at different points in their electrification evolution, each facing their own unique challenges, whether it is their landscape that is a barrier to increased EV infrastructure, standardisation, the political landscape, or complicated payment methods.

Increasing charging infrastructure and simplifying payment methods to render charging an EV as simple as filling up a fossil-fuel car is arguably one of the best ways to increase EV adoption. Unifying standards globally is another – however, it will take some time and cooperation between governments and automakers.

What is positive to see is that countries are now embracing the electrification of their highways, and the total global adoption of electric vehicles will soon become a reality.

Sources:

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org

https://www.autocar.co.uk

https://thedriven.io