By 2035 all vehicles sold in Europe will be electric, at least that’s the prediction made by the major Dutch bank ING.
Red Tesla Model S (Image: T. Larkum)
The report predicts a huge increase in the adoption of electric vehicles, potentially overtaking many country’s own regulations which promise to cut out the sale of petrol and diesel cars.
While this is fantastic news for the environment, ING’s report points out that it could potentially have a major impact on the European car industry.
According to ING, America and Japan are well ahead of Europe when it comes to electric car technologies including the development of batteries.
With companies like Tesla already leading the way, the Dutch bank warns that unless European manufacturers pick up the pace of their R&D into the technology they could be left behind.
It goes on to warn about the potential effects on manufacturing as well. Electric cars require a lot of advanced materials, but constructing an electric motor is actually far less complicated than building a conventional combustion engine.
The main catalyst for the rise in popularity though will be a huge reduction in price.
Read more: Huffington Post