Inside unstoppable rise of EVs with more than 220MILLION electric vehicles to be on roads in seven years time

THE rise of EVs is continuing to grow at a rapid rate with more than 220million electric vehicles to be on roads in just seven years time.

By 2030, the number of electric cars will have jumped by almost tenfold as China continue to drive production of the green machines.

According to research by the International Energy Agency (IEA), there will be roughly 220million electric passenger vehicles on the road by 2030 - a staggering 26million increase from 2022.

The change has been described as an "unstoppable" shift to net zero.

The report states that the huge surge in EVs will result in peak demand for fossil fuels - such as oil, natural gas and coal within the next seven years.

Research from the IEA's latest World Energy Outlook suggested that electric vehicles had increased "rapidly in recent years" with sales surpassing 10million last year.

It also added that electric cars are expected to have a giant global market share of 38 per cent in terms of sales in just seven years time.

The IEA said: “In this outlook, projections show more than 220m electric passenger cars on the road in 2030, a 20pc increase on the number in the 2022 outlook. This increase cuts oil demand in 2030 by around one million barrels per day.”

China has exceeded its 2025 target for electric vehicle sales two years early, the IEA said, with subsidies set to drive demand even higher within the coming years.

This is the case despite electric motors being significantly more expensive than their petrol or diesel counterparts.

Last month, PM Rishi Sunak announced Britain will push back a ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans to 2035 from 2030, to protect “hard-pressed British families” from “unacceptable costs”.

But demand for the EVs also wavered due to higher production costs.

German car manufacturing giant Volkswagen, warned this summer it was “experiencing a general reluctance to purchase electric cars” after cutting production at one of its plants in June.

The IEA backed its claim that "major shifts" towards clean energy were likely to result in a “considerably different global energy system by the end of this decade”.

This includes wider usage of heat pumps, currently the leading option in replacing gas boilers as the countries shift to net zero.

But while the IEA said switching to a heat pump will bring energy costs down in the future, it concluded that high costs remained a crucial barrier to adoption.

It noted that more affluent households in the US were around ten times more likely to own an EV than those in the lowest income groups.

“Upfront costs often remain high, particularly for low income households, while the design of electricity tariffs and energy taxation still put heat pumps at a disadvantage relative to fossil fuel boilers in some countries,” the IEA said.

“Meeting existing targets also requires more installers and faster progress in colder climates, multi-family apartment buildings and homes with retrofit requirements.”