Electric Vehicle Revolution

For over 100 years, the global automotive market was dominated by cars powered by internal combustion engines, which relied mostly on the use of polluting fuels and accounted for more than half of the world's air pollution. The automotive market is in the midst of an electric vehicle revolution, driven by a combination of technological, economic, regulatory, and environmental developments. What is happening in the world and how does it affect us?

The electric vehicle entered our lives about a decade ago, but it took a long time for it to be adopted by drivers. The big leap began with Tesla's success, through the ambitions of Chinese manufacturers to conquer the automotive world, and up to the large and established car manufacturers that also joined the revolution taking place in the automotive market.

Technological Development
The electric vehicle leads an impressive technological revolution that impacts our lives. Technological innovations are reflected in three main areas:

• The electric vehicle contains a battery located at the bottom of the electric vehicle, used to store energy for driving the vehicle, effectively replacing the familiar fuel tank.
• Charging the vehicle using a dedicated charging station, which gradually replaces the fuel pump. Charging infrastructures are also developing rapidly, allowing for fast and convenient charging using advanced charging technologies.
• User experience through new applications that allow easy management of the electric vehicle and its charging.

Economic Development
In recent years, the electric vehicle has become an economic alternative for drivers. While the initial cost of an electric vehicle is relatively high, maintenance and energy costs are significantly lower compared to combustion engine vehicles. The development of charging infrastructures and the provision of various incentives also help in the transition to electric vehicles.

Regulation and Environment
The electric vehicle plays a key role in significantly reducing air pollution, and therefore the transition to electric vehicles has many health and economic implications, constituting one of the significant challenges faced by governments worldwide. The importance of transitioning to cleaner transportation has led many countries to see the electric vehicle as a solution to the air pollution problem. To increase the use of electric vehicles, many countries have chosen to take several prominent steps: reducing pollutant emissions, providing government incentives, creating differential taxation on vehicle purchases based on pollution levels, promoting the construction of suitable charging infrastructure, and even declaring that from a certain year, the sale of non-electric vehicles will be banned.

What is happening in the world?
In the last decade, the proportion of electric vehicles out of the total new vehicles sold worldwide has been steadily increasing by thousands of percent. In 2012, 59,000 new electric vehicles were sold worldwide, accounting for 0.2% of all vehicles sold that year globally. In 2023, 9.9 million new electric vehicles were sold worldwide, accounting for about 13% of global sales.

The conclusion is: the electric vehicle market has only just begun to grow, and by the end of the decade, forecasts predict sales of over 40% electric vehicles out of the total vehicles sold each year.

What is happening in Israel?
The Israeli automotive market is in the midst of an electric revolution. The electric vehicle is conquering the Israeli market and growing by thousands of percent. Within five years, the market grew from a negligible figure of 613 electric vehicles in 2019 (0.24% of the total new electric vehicles delivered) to almost 48,000 vehicles in 2023 (17.9% of the total electric vehicles delivered).

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, as of the end of 2023, there were almost 100,000 registered electric cars in Israel - an increase of about 100% compared to 2022. Estimates suggest that by 2030, about 1.3 million electric vehicles are expected to be on Israel's roads.

In conclusion, the continued growth in the electric vehicle market shows that we can expect continued high demand for electric vehicles in the coming decade, and the electric vehicle is now almost part of the consensus among customers in Israel.