U.S.: new energy vehicle sales represent only 4% of the U.S. auto market

With the increasing awareness of global climate change, new energy vehicles have become increasingly popular in the transportation field. However, the official US news recently showed that the sales of new-energy vehicles in the United States are not ideal, and the market is still less competitive than traditional fossil fuel vehicles.

New energy vehicle sales accounted for just 4 percent of the U.S. auto market in 2017, according to a new report from the U.S. energy information administration (EIA), UPI reported.

EIA points out that its statistics of new energy vehicles include a variety of types, in addition to the pure electric vehicles familiar to Volkswagen, but also hybrid vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles, solar vehicles and so on.

Sales of battery-powered all-electric cars are growing fastest. Even so, sales of all-electric vehicles in the United States accounted for less than 1 percent of total vehicle sales in 2017. The market share of plug-in hybrids in the United States has grown slightly, but only from 0.1 percent in 2012 to 0.5 percent in 2017. The share of non-plug-in hybrids in the U.S. fell from 3% to 1.9% over the same period.

According to the EIA report, in order to expand the market demand for new energy vehicles, the U.S. federal government and states are actively taking various measures to stimulate users to buy cars. However, despite the government's best efforts, sales of new energy vehicles have not increased significantly.

The EIA cited two reasons for the U.S. sales setback. One is the relatively low price of gasoline in the United States in 2017, which to some extent prompted most users to prefer to use conventional fuel vehicles. Second, the market of new energy vehicles in the United States is underdeveloped, and the price of new energy vehicles in the United States is relatively expensive, which largely discourages users who are on the fence.

According to united press international, the price of new energy vehicles in the United States is extremely high. For example, as the top 10 sales leader in the U.S. auto industry, the average new energy vehicle of Honda's civic brand sells for about $20,000. The ford focus new energy car, which claims to be on the "must have list for professional drivers," has a price tag of about $30,000.

In addition, the U.S. department of energy's national renewable energy laboratory believes that the frequent obstacles to the promotion of new energy vehicles in the United States lies in the serious lack of charging infrastructure for new energy vehicles nationwide.

It is understood that at present, most areas of the United States have not realized the basic coverage of charging piles, which can not provide convenient charging services for car owners. According to the national renewable energy laboratory of the United States, there are about 40,000 normal charging piles in the United States. However, there are more than 500,000 new energy vehicles in use in the United States, and the number of charging piles can barely meet the demand of 1/4 of new energy vehicles.

In view of the shortage of charging piles in the United States, some foreign enterprises have tried to participate in the market. In April, Japan's Marubeni announced it would enter the U.S. market for charging piles, mainly to provide infrastructure such as ultra-fast charging stations, Reuters reported.

Marubeni will partner with Japanese charging infrastructure company Signet EV to build 340 new energy vehicle charging stations in the United States. When completed, the project is expected to provide a rapid charging experience for owners of new energy vehicles in the United States. However, officials said that due to the different types of vehicles, the charging speed will be slightly different, and the optimal project result will be 7 times faster than the traditional charging station.

It is worth mentioning that the EIA data also showed that although new energy vehicles accounted for less than 5 % of the US car market in 2017, production growth exceeded 60 %. UIC pointed out that the construction of the charging station project, coupled with the recent rise in the retail price of gasoline in the United States, is likely to promote the sale of new energy vehicles in the United States.

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