Top 10 Countries Globally with The Most Electric Vehicles Sales in Q1, 2020

A remarkable acceleration is about to show globally the market of electric vehicles in the coming years due to recently increased governmental incentives and punitive measures for the most polluting cars. The electric vehicle sales around the world for the first quarter of 2020 are representative of the market expansion.

The country with the best performance in Q1 2020 regarding electric vehicle sales was China with 133,1 thousand units sold. Second, came the USA with 59,1 thousand units sold in Q1 2020. Closely follows Germany with 52,8 thousand units sold in Q1 2020. France and the United Kingdom complete the top 5 countries of the list with the more sales of electric vehicles in the first quarter of 2020. More specifically, in France were registered 40 thousand units of electric vehicles sold, and in the United Kingdom, 33,6 thousand units sold.

Norway took 6^th place on the list with 23,3 thousand units of electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2020. Another European country, Sweden is included in the list. Sweden took 7^th place with 18,6 thousand units of electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2020. The Netherlands and South Korea came 8^th and 9^th on the list with 12,2 and 11,5 thousand units of electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2020 respectively.  Lastly, Italy took 10^th place on the list with 8,5 thousand units of electric vehicles sold in the first quarter of 2020.

From the above data is concluded that European countries dominate the list. Except for the above top 10 there are some countries with the least progress concerning the electric vehicles market. For example, Hong Kong sold 1,4 thousand units of electric vehicles in the first quarter of 2020. The same number of electric vehicles was sold in Iceland. Also, Denmark had a not so good performance in the electric vehicles market with 4,2 thousand units sold in the first quarter of 2020. At the same time in Finland were sold 4,7 thousand units of electric vehicles.

The good performance of the countries that are included in the top 10 is based on specific incentives introduced by the governments to encourage the use of environmentally friendly cars. For example, France is in force with an increase in the environmental penalty for high emitting cars. In Germany, has been decided to be extended the tax incentives for electric company cars until the end of 2030. The country has also increased purchase price subsidies for electric vehicles and will continue them until the end of 2021.

In the United Kingdom, electric vehicles are exempted from Vehicle Excise Duty and can also benefit from a number of other incentive measures. Norway has one of the most effective governance frameworks concerning tax exemptions measures for electric vehicles. Sweden has introduced an amendment in January 2020 for test procedures to determine the CO2 emissions of vehicles. Lastly, Denmark continues to increase annual road tax tariffs for diesel cars and Italy now takes into account the CO2 emission criteria concerning the private use of company cars and the taxable benefit.

Summarizing, the European countries that have a high performance in introducing incentives in favor of electric vehicles are Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. On the other hand, the countries with low performance in introducing incentives in favor of electric vehicles are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

The above data come from the IHS Markit company. The company based in London provides information services and was formed in 2016 with the merger of IHS Inc. and Markit Ltd. The company was originally founded in 1959.