Challenges of the electric vehicle markets in emerging economies

Abstract

Electric mobility is an emerging market around the world. Electric vehicles have remarkable environmental gains compared to conventional vehicles, they contribute to decreasing fossil energy dependence, but they need huge investments in charging infrastructure and their market price is much above regular ones. The conditions for market penetration are generally critical in emerging economies, where the purchasing power is far below that of developed economies. In addition, further technical and regulatory barriers hinder the market uptake and augmentation. This paper aims to discover and analyze the current market conditions of electric vehicles in selected emerging economies and to set up augmentation pathways, based on experiences in developed and in developing countries.