Electric Vehicles short-term update: coronavirus and oil price crash drain momentum

The global spread of coronavirus and an oil price crash have all but confirmed a global recession and wreaked havoc in the EV market. The situation has forced many to postpone car purchases. It has also made consumers averse to the risk of adopting new technologies – electric cars included. However, the fundamentals of the electrification of the transport industry remain unchanged. Long-term government policies to fight climate change will not deterred be by the current situation. Automakers have not changed their goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Nor do we expect governments to defer or cancel the phasing out of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles longer term. EV adoption in the near term will still depend on charging infrastructure development and the price of buying a vehicle, not the price of oil. Wood Mackenzie projects that EV sales will drop 43% year-on-year across the world for 2020.