At the beginning of November the world experienced a real test of patience, as the counting of votes following the elections in the USA dragged on for days. In this turbulent phase, one of the most famous and successful US entrepreneurs flew across the pond when Elon Musk landed at the brand-new Berlin BER airport, from where he made his way to Grünheide in Brandenburg. At the new plant of the electric car manufacturer, the boss personally conducted job interviews. Musk had previously tweeted that interested engineers should send their resumés to Tesla. This little anecdote shows that political turbulence at home will not dissuade the billionaire from his vision. Elon Musk is more convinced than ever of the future and the growth opportunities of e-mobility and is giving this megatrend a massive boost with his company. Production in Grünheide is scheduled to start up next summer.
Business at the industry leader is already booming: Tesla delivered almost 140,000 vehicles from July to September 2020. This was 44% up on the same period last year and more than ever before in a single quarter. The Americans are thus at the spearhead of the global spread of electric mobility. According to Statista, in 2019 global sales of electric vehicles crossed the 2 million barrier for the first time. Based on 2012, the statistics portal puts the average annual growth rate of the market at 50.9% (see graph). Although the share of total vehicle production - a good 67 million passenger vehicles rolled off the assembly lines worldwide in 2019 - is still relatively small, China is showing where the journey could lead: in 2019, the Middle Kingdom accounted for just over half of the global sales of electric cars (see chart).
Other countries are likely to follow suit in converting transport to e-mobility over the coming years. In a study, Statista refers to the forecast of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which revealed that 14 million electric vehicles (plug-in and plug-in hybrid) are set to be sold worldwide in 2025. Just five years later, the agency foresees a sales volume of 25 million units. The authors of the Statista report cite three central growth drivers: politics, the Tesla effect and falling battery prices. "Governments are trying to achieve the emission targets they set in various global agreements," the experts say by way of explanation. In this respect, the sector could soon receive a strong boost from the USA. As is well known, President Donald Trump has doubts about climate change, with the Republican-initiated cancellation of the Paris Agreement coming into effect just one day after the election. However, it looks like the community of nations will not have to do without the superpower in the fight against global warming for very long: the designated election winner, Joe Biden, wants to reverse the withdrawal as one of his first official acts.
E-mobility plays an important role in the ambitious decarbonization plans of the president-elect, and the Biden team has identified charging infrastructure as one of the barriers to the spread of this technology. More than 500,000 new public charging stations are therefore to be built in the USA by the end of 2030. Tax incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles are also planned. The future president intends to give preference to cars manufactured in the USA. Nevertheless, the market as a whole should benefit from such a policy. Investors could therefore have more opportunities than ever before across the e-mobility value chain. In addition to vehicle manufacturers, battery manufacturers, suppliers of vehicle parts and electronic components and specialists in the charging infrastructure are also keen to share in the expected growth. The investment experts at Swissquote, at any rate, are convinced of this trend: they have just added an actively managed "eMobility" portfolio to their "Themes Trading" series.
Source: Statista, as at July 2020 Historical data are not a reliable indicator of future performance.
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