Electric Vehicle Development News – France Leaps Ahead
- More than a third more electric charging points were installed last year in France; more than anywhere else
- The greatest share of electric vehicles is in Norway with 34.7%
- In the UK we are third for electric vehicles with regards to infrastructure and adoption of electric vehicles.
The electric vehicle is really growing as a legitimate part of the worlds transport systems and although Norway is the top, France is now expanding as well. OSV Ltd, the UK’s leading independent vehicle professionals, have brought out a new Electric Car Index. This has shown that in the previous year France has installed 11,987 electric charging points which is larger than any other country and a third more than in the previous year. The next closest company was Germany at 7,937 and they take fifth place in the table.
The company used a selection of different data in order to rank the countries. They looked at the number of charging points but also the amount of government incentives as well as the market share of new electric vehicle sales. They used this to index the countries across the world and then rank them. France only has 1.5% of the global share of electric vehicles but it has invested in the infrastructure significantly and that is why it has been placed so high, above Norway’s which has a 34.7% market share. Norway has offered three incentives to buyers of electric vehicles which is likely to be why their intake was so high.
It could be a surprise that the UK is joining Switzerland in third place in the index. This is due to the fact that there were 2,833 new charging points installed, two government incentives and they hold 1.7% of the market share. Switzerland has a larger market share at 2% and also two incentives but less charging points at 2,716.
Also in the top ten list are Sweden and Belgium at joint sixth, USA in eighth and Finland and Canada joint ninth.
The joint company director for OSV, Debbie Kirkley explained more about it. She said that the UK has recently been criticised for its slowness in getting the infrastructure ready so that customers can more easily switch to environmentally-friendly vehicles. However, seeing them at joint third shows that things are changing, but there is still more that can be done. France is probably installing more charging points due to the pollution problems they have had and although it may seem a little odd, they are probably hoping that as the points increase in number, it will mean that more people will buy electric vehicles.
In 2040 there will be a petrol and diesel ban and therefore everyone needs to be getting prepared for this and the electric cars are leading the way at the moment.
OSV have been trading since 1997 and are members of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association. Their website can be found at https://www.osv.ltd.uk/ and they can help with finding cars and financial packages to suit customer’s needs. If you would rather call them, you can do on 01903 538835.