An estimated 94 million new electric cars, trucks and buses are forecast to be added to the global fleet in 2023, with the total number of four-wheeled road vehicles now at 1.57 billion, up to 2.1% from 2022, according to a new EV report by BloombergNEF.
Annual sales of passenger electric vehicle sales are on track to reach around 14.2 million units in 2023, up from 10.5 million in 2022. Some 15.5% of new cars sold globally in the first half of this year were electric, up from 14% in 2022.
Spending on clean road transport globally is set to reach $685 billion this year.
This growth in EVs is, obviously, expected to have a knock-on impact on critical mineral demand, total capacity of lithium-ion battery-manufacturing capacity is expected to increase x3, to 7.4TWh/year, if all projects planned and under construction are to be delivered.
The US share of global electric battery manufacturing capacity is set to rise, driven by the Inflation Reduction Act:
- 4% in 2022
- 8% in 2023
- 10% in 2025
As we highlighted in our analysis on next-gen electric battery chemistry, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries – which use no cobalt or nickel – has especially benefited from recent rises in battery metal prices. In 2023, over 40% of batteries used in passenger EVs were LFP, up from just 17% in 2020.
The projected growth comes despite warnings of a slowdown in sales of EVs in the face of rising interest rates, supply chain concerns and rising costs.
Our analysis on how metal demand is set to soar on Joe Biden’s big bet on a clean economy with the Inflation Reduction Act: