The EV Path to the Electrified Future.

As the automotive industry gears up for a shift to electric vehicles, EV momentum is on the upswing, with a record number of almost 100 pure battery electric vehicles set to debut by the end of 2024.¹

Several factors are accelerating the move to EVs in the U.S., including growing EV consumer interest, and bipartisan support of a sweeping bill under consideration which includes more than $70 billion for EV-related improvements.²

To ultimately lift EV sales, a commitment to traditional and less-traditional incentives throughout the life of the vehicle appears to be driving success.

Norway and China: A Tale of Two Countries.
Norway, a nation that has long leveraged a variety of incentives, provides an intriguing blueprint for motivating EV sales. Through collaborative and creative incentive efforts, their EVs captured an enviable market share.

Norwegian EV buyers enjoy incentive benefits both at purchase and over time, with many incentives — such as being able to use bus lanes and free charging — extending for the life of the vehicle. Importantly, these incentives exist on both a federal and local level. Other EV incentives include capping ferry fares, parking fees and tolls at 50%, cutting the company car tax in half, eliminating the annual road tax, and offering additional incentives for buyers scrapping their fossil-fuel vans when converting to a zero-emission vehicle.

China, unlike Norway, has limited its incentives to sales. With a $60 Billion investment to support the EV industry, it became the world’s largest EV market, and then concluded it could phase out incentives.³ The result: EV sales first slowed, then plummeted during the pandemic, dropping a dramatic 54% in January and a greater 77% in February 2020.⁵

A Time-Tested Lesson in Market Economics.
The Norway and China case studies show that incentives are necessary, and when strategically applied throughout the purchase and consumption process on federal and local levels, they drive the difference.