How will electric vehicles be deployed across the USA over the next four years? A new study by the Centre for Automotive Research, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, non-profit organisation, believes it has the answer.
Within the study, the centre looks at the percentages used to divide national electric vehicle sales among the states. It looks at hybrid vehicle sales in each of the 50 states as a proxy for electric vehicle sales and estimates a total of 496,000 plug-in electric vehicles on US roads in 2015 with annual sales of 27,000 in 2011.
It is predicted that by 2015, California will sell close to 35,000 electric vehicles each year and have more than 110,000 electric vehicles registered in the state. Other states meanwhile, will sell less than 8,000 electric vehicles a year with fewer than 26,000 registrations even in Texas, New York and Florida.
The estimates are said to be highly subjective due to variations that could be prompted by major oil price spikes or aggressive incentive programmes.
It also suggests that while specific numbers may not be exact their magnitude should be reflected in relative sales among the states. For example, it is unlikely that California will only sell a few thousand electric vehicles by 2015 and if anything states that have been selected for early deployment will see faster rates of electric vehicle adoption.
