RE: RE: Toyota upping Li-ion battery output 6-fold something seems amiss....
Roland Berger E-Mobility Index finds government subsidies for and projected sales of xEVs declining worldwide
22 May 2013
Despite maturing technology and better cost structures, worldwide production forecasts for electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) are in decline, posing a threat to national targets to raise the share of xEVs in vehicle fleets, according to the latest E-mobility Index by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen mbH Aachen (fka) for Q1 2013.
The index compares the development of e-mobility in seven leading car-manufacturing nations (Germany, France, Italy, US, Japan, China and South Korea) on the basis of three parameters: technology, manufacturing, and market.
Government support for e-mobility is declining in all the countries surveyed with the exception of China, according to the report. None of the subsidy programs that ended at the end of 2012 were renewed. Additionally, the support that exists is inversely proportional to the increase in these countries’ economic performance—i.e., with subsidies growing more slowly than GDP, the subsidy situation does not benefit from increases in economic output.
Overall, worldwide sales forecasts—and hence the related production forecasts for EVs and PHEVs—are more conservative than in the preceding survey period. Among the seven automotive nations tracked by the index, the share of production in some segments is shifting in favor of individual countries. Since the previous survey, forecasts for vehicle production in Germany, France and South Korea have experienced positive development but remain at comparably low levels. Forecasts for vehicle sales in China, the US and Japan have been corrected downward. Growth in France is attributable above all to significantly higher sales forecasts for the Renault Twizy.
...Negative overall development in the market for EVs and PHEVs, despite mature technologies and optimized cost structures, suggests that the right conditions are not in place. Yet politicians still hold fast to the targets already set to ramp up the market for this class of vehicles—while conceding that realization will be delayed in some cases.
—Roland Berger E-mobility index for Q1 2013