Get ready for a flood of EV models

There are fewer than two dozen electric vehicle models on the market today. That number is going to skyrocket before this decade is out, according to industry analysts.

That may be behind tempered excitement for EVs as not many options are available for consumers. But automakers are hard at work developing the technology, said Akshay Singh, partner with Strategy&, at AAPEX 2021. So get ready to see many more in the next several years in North America.

“If you look at the number of nameplates that will be introduced by the OEMs in the next eight years or so, it’s a massive number for models being introduced — almost more than 160 nameplates,” he predicted.

Akshay Singh, left, and Carlos Thimann of Strategy& present the report thei co-authored at AAPEX 2021

The data he presented was from a joint electrification forecast he co-authored. It was presented by Auto Care Association and the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association, Impact of New Technologies in the Automotive Aftermarket.

Furthermore, Singh noted, Europe and China are expected to see twice as many models become available. “So there’s going to be intense competition between the automotive OEMs in terms of targeting market share,” he added.”

Pre-pandemic, about 20 million vehicles were sold in North America every year. So if there is a 20 per cent adoption rate at the start of the next decade, that means at least 20,000 electric vehicles per nameplate are going to be sold.

“So it remains to be seen whether automotive OEMs are going to make any returns on their investment, at least in the short term, in the next five to 10 [years],” Singh said.

Expect competition among automakers to ramp up as well.

“Competition is going to be intense. Every OEM is focusing on or actively working on introducing electric vehicles,” Singh said. “Japanese OEMs — who are really behind and really thought that they just wanted to focus on hybrids — have to also adopted this strategy. They have also realized that they have to introduce electric vehicles in the next five to 10 years. And they all are working on it.”