Fortune Minerals : COBALT NEWS

The World Economic Forum - June 29, 2021

By the end of 2020, there were 10 million electric cars on the road. Financial incentives are helping to increase sales of ...

old polluting car for an electric one, many governments have deployed a range of incentives to encourage the take-up of EVs. Electriccar

While the pandemic oversaw a global car sales drop of 16%, electric car registrations grew by 41% in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). That rise meant that there were around 10 million electric vehicles out and about on the world's roads by the end of last year…Consumer spending on electric cars rose to $120 billion in 2020, the IEA says in its Global EV Outlook 2021 report. That's a jump of 50% on 2019's figures…Alongside that, 'governments across the world spent $14 billion to support electric car sales, up 25% from 2019, mostly from stronger incentives in Europe'…That said, the share of government-supplied incentives - as a proportion of total EV spending - has been falling over the past five years, the IEA report shows. Government incentives made up around 10% of EV spending in 2020, down from roughly 20% in 2015…The most common mechanisms for administering incentives have been the kind of rebate New Zealand has just announced…Drivers there can look forward to a cash rebate if they buy electric or hybrid cars. The Clean Car Discount scheme comes into effect on 1 July 2021 and will 'make it cheaper for New Zealanders to buy electric and low-emission cars,' the country's Transport Minister Michael Wood said in a statement online…As well as rebates on cleaner cars, the scheme will also introduce additional fees on the price of vehicles that produce high levels of carbon dioxide emissions, earning it the nickname 'the feebate' in New Zealand…In the US, President Biden has just announced $7.5 billion for an EV charging infrastructure network, but it's not yet clear what will be made available for vehicle purchasing incentives - $100 billion was originally earmarked for EV subsidies in Biden's 'American Jobs Plan'…In California, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project offers discounts of up to $7,000 on new EVs, although the scheme is currently on hold as funding has been used up. California also operates a Clean Fuel Reward programme, which can be worth up to $1,500 when buying or leasing an EV…The UK government offers a $3,480 discount on new EVs under $48,670, but this represents a cut to the previous grant, which was $4,170 on EVs worth $69,500, according to The Guardian…In 2019, the vehicle-maker Volkswagen carried out a comparison of some of the world's leading EV markets and the different incentive levers governments were pulling to encourage sales. Generous tax bonuses in Norway are attributed to bringing the price of EVs and conventional cars close to parity…China, meanwhile, is the world's largest market for EVs, due in large part to its extensive regulatory incentives.