With batteries getting cheaper and governments promoting their use, electric vehicles are going to be sucking up a whole lot more of the world’s power in coming years.
How much? About 9 percent of total global electricity demand by 2050 will come from vehicles, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That’s up from about 0.2 percent now. In some places it will be even higher, like Germany, where the London-based research company expects as much as 24 percent.
That growth is driven by battery prices that are expected to fall by two-thirds by 2030, as well as new time-of-use rate policies from utilities that encourage consumers to charge their cars when demand is low and power is cheap, according to BNEF.
“Prices have come down faster than we expected,” Salim Morsy, a New York-based analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an interview. “Lower battery prices unlock more EVs.”