The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, Washington, D.C., which represents companies that manufacture almost 99% of autos and light trucks in the United States, announced that it is actively and voluntarily getting behind the manufacture of electric vehicles in a big way. This is now a priority, when in the past, it had made attempts to slow their growth.

A report published by Wood Mackenzie, Annapolis, Md., provides some additional perspective on this trend and some implications for electrical contractors.

According to the report, “the transport sector all but ground to a halt in 2020.”

The decline in overall car sales for the year was 20%. However, while lockdown restrictions around the globe “put the brakes” on internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger vehicle sales, electric vehicle (EV) sales surged 38%.

And it is not just a one-year decline in ICE vehicle sales. “ICE vehicle sales are in terminal decline,” the report noted, adding that ICE vehicle sales actually peaked in 2017 and have been declining ever since.

In the short to medium term, according to Wood Mackenzie, government regulations (including incentives and more stringent emission requirements) will do a lot of the “heavy lifting” in terms of encouraging EV adoption.

“In the U.S., we expect passenger EV sales to reach 83% by 2050, accelerating after California’s 2035 ICE ban,” according to the report.

So where will all the chargers be located to meet the significant growth in the number of EVs on the road? There are a number of locations, such as garages in single-family homes, multi-unit dwelling parking lots and garages, workplace parking lots and garages, community charging areas and major roads and highways.

To date, all of these locations have seen increases in the number of EV charging stations being built. However, according to Wood Mackenzie, the majority of future demand is going to be in the first two locations—individual homes and multi-unit dwellings.

“While early adopters of EVs primarily reside in homes with access to off-street parking, the deployment of chargers in multi-unit dwellings is on the rise,” the report said. “This reduces the need to install more public chargers.”

“At a whopping 88% of an estimated 416 million charging outlets globally, residential chargers are projected to be the primary mode of charging for EVs,” according to the report.