Global EV Outlook 2023 Trends and developments in EV markets
Catching up with climate ambitions
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In 2022, China led in terms of overall electric LCV sales with over 130 000 units
sold, and nearly 15% of LCVs sold being electric.
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Subsidies for battery electric
and fuel cell trucks and vocational vehicles (including LCVs) have decreased in
recent years, but overall zero-emission commercial truck sales have been growing
since 2020, even as subsidies per vehicle have declined, indicating the increasing
commercial competitiveness of electric trucks.
In terms of market share, Korea continued to lead in 2022 with 27% of LCV sales
being electric (36 000 vehicles), but sales growth in 2022 slowed to half its level
in the previous year. This may be due to changes
to the subsidy scheme for LCVs
and to the repealing in April 2022 of a policy that made obtaining commercial
registration permits
easier for electric LCVs than ICE models (see Policy
developments and corporate strategy).
Light commercial EV sales shares also grew substantially in the Nordic countries,
with Norway reaching 25%, Iceland 16%, and Sweden 13%. In all other key
European and North American national markets, shares are lower than 10%, and
typically less than the global average of 3.5%, but the rate of growth in market
share for electric LCVs was higher than for passenger light-duty vehicles (PLDVs)
(albeit from a lower baseline) across most leading EV markets, including the
United States, Japan, and the European Union.
Electric two-wheeler sales declined in China while global
electric three-wheeler sales continued to rise
Global electric two-wheeler sales totalled about 9.2 million in 2022, a drop of
nearly 18% from 2021 (Figure 1.10). This drop is almost entirely attributable to the
dip in sales of electric mopeds and motorcycles in China, which fell from
10.2 million in 2021 to under 7.7 million in 2022, even as the overall two-wheeler
market there continued to grow. Supply chain challenges stemming from China’s
pandemic-related restrictions in 2022 hit the electric two-wheeler market
particularly hard, and in spite of growth in sales of premium domestic and imported
two-wheelers (e.g. from BMW, Ducati and others), the overall sales share of
electric two-wheelers dipped back below 50%.
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Despite the decline in sales, China
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Commercial truck sales in China are reported according to four gross vehicle weight (GVW) bins: less than 1.8 tonnes, 1.8-
6 tonnes, 6-14 tonnes, and greater than 14 tonnes. These are reallocated to categories based on other external data sources
to match IEA’s harmonised global definitions of light commercial vehicles (less than 3.5 tonnes GVW), medium trucks (3.5-
15 tonnes), and heavy trucks (15 tonnes GVW and above).
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As with other vehicle types, tracking new two-wheeler registrations (“sales”) in China is difficult, as the official data source,
CAAM, tracks factory shipments, and hence reports volumes that include exported vehicles. Tracking is particularly difficult
in the case of electric two-wheelers, however, as many data sources include pedal-electric bicycles and other small electric
mopeds (see, for instance, a recent industry report from Honda). Chinese data sources
give vehicle sales of electric two-
wheelers at around 50 million in 2021, and 60 million in 2022, of which about 7.6 million are classified as motorcycles (China
Chamber of Commerce for Motorcycles). Some of these attain top speeds of less than 50 km/hour, and so are excluded from
the above figures. In India, electric bicycles and mopeds with a top speed of less than 50 km/hour made up more than 80%
of the market in 2021 and 2022. The accounting here includes only vehicles with a minimum top speed of 50 km/hr and that
fit the UNECE definition of L1 or L3, based on data provided by
MotorcyclesData.com.