Some people might say that Elon Musk is the man who killed the gasoline car through his company Tesla. It’s impossible to argue that Tesla have not opened the eyes of the big masses and in some ways revolutionized the car industry. The public view of electric cars has changed with the introduction of Tesla model S, the electric car can be stylish and fast. However, how much has really changed? According to statistia.com1 the number of electric cars sold has gone from about 100 thousand in 2013 to estimates suggest that about 1,3 million has been sold in 2016. Tesla has sold approximately 170 0002 cars since the introduction of the Tesla Roadster in 2008. To put this number in perspective, the total number of sold cars in 2016 amounts to roughly 75 million3 this makes the number of electric cars to about 1,7% of the total.
To me this suggest that the golden era of the combustion powered car has not come to an end rather than a new phase. It’s said that sport cars are usually ahead when it comes to technology, if this is true we will see a lot of more hybrid cars and they will be more advanced than ever. The last few years all large sport cars manufactures have released new cars. Ferrari introduced their La Ferrari, McLaren came up with their extreme P1, Porsches contribution was the 918 Spyder and perhaps the most extreme came from Swedish company Koenigsegg when they introduced the all new Regera. Christian von Koenigsegg the CEO and founder of Koenigsegg states that there are much more to be done with the development of the traditional combustion engine. For example, Regera4 has no gearbox which is very unorthodox. Christian is involved with other companies and subsidiaries of Koenigsegg that develop new technology to improve the efficiency and performance of the traditional engines.
There is no doubt that the trend suggests an increase in the numbers of electric cars being sold, but that does not take into consideration the already existing stock of traditional gasoline powered cars. So even if media may suggest that the combustion engine is dead, it will take a very long time until won’t be around anymore, and until then we will see more new inventions that will make the combustion engine better in every way.
1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/270603/worldwide-number-of-hybrid-and-electric-vehicles-since-2009/
2 http://www.hybridcars.com/chinas-byd-becomes-worlds-third-largest-plug-in-car-maker/
3 https://www.statista.com/statistics/200002/international-car-sales-since-1990/
4 http://koenigsegg.com/
Like that post Lars, btw I think in Poland the era of gasoline cars stil will be continuing for a very long time, even one of the past idea about making a limits on cars age was unacceptable by drivers, so in case of eco cars –
well, for now i cannot see their high chances around this state.
Magda.