Global EV Sales Accelerating

Global electric vehicle (EV) sales picked up speed in the first quarter, but more government action is needed on charging stations and fossil-fuel vehicle bans to keep the momentum going, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

"We still see no sign of a slowdown in global electric car markets," said Timur Gül, head of the IEA's energy technology policy division, in a presentation on the global outlook for EVs.

While the COVID-19 pandemic drove global car sales down 16% in 2020, EV sales jumped 41% to around 3 million vehicles.

First quarter global EV sales soared 140% to 1.1 million vehicles, with strong growth in China, Europe and the United States, the IEA said.

A Munich Mobility Show study released last week showed huge disparities in global EV ownership, with very few electrified vehicles on the roads in large markets like Russia, South America and Africa.

EV sales growth in Europe and China has been fueled by tightening CO2 emissions standards and government subsidies.

Globally, consumers spent around $120 billion on EVs in 2020, while governments forked out around $13 billion in subsidies, or equivalent to around 10% of total spending, down from 20% of total spending in 2015.

That will fall further as battery prices drop and EVs reach cost parity with fossil-fuel vehicles, which IEA energy analyst Jacopo Tattini said should happen by 2030.

"But policies must be strengthened to enable a larger electric vehicle deployment," Tattini said.

He said governments need to further tighten fuel economy standards and join the 20 or so countries that have already announced plans to ban on sales of new fossil-fuel vehicles - such as the United Kingdom, which has announced a ban from 2030.

Governments also need to keep up spending on charging infrastructure, Tattini said. Carmakers and environmental groups say more spending on EV chargers is needed to foster consumer confidence in the technology and support sales.

And other China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (HWT.UL), once the world's biggest smartphone maker, saw its phone shipments to retailers and other sellers within China plunge by half in the first quarter, as U.S. sanctions on its supply chain crimped expansion even as the overall smartphone market rebounded.

The company shipped a total of 14.9 million handsets within China in the quarter ending in March, down from 30.1 million in the same period last year, according to research firm Canalys.

Its market share also dropped to 16% from 41% a year ago, becoming the third largest after fellow Chinese brands Vivo and Oppo.

Vivo and Oppo saw their shipments grow 79% and 65% respectively, as they gained market share from Huawei. Vivo shipped 21.6 million units in the first quarter, while Oppo shipped 20.6 million.

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Huawei was put on a blacklist by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019 that barred the company from importing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors.

The ban put Huawei's once lucrative handset business under immense pressure, prompting the sale of its Honor budget smartphone unit to a group of agents and dealers in November.

Huawei said on Wednesday its first-quarter revenue fell 16.5%, hurt by a dip in smartphone sales. China's overall market for smartphones has rebounded back to pre-pandemic levels, with overall shipments increasing 24% from the first quarter a year ago, when the pandemic was peaking in the country.

Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) also grew shipments 75% to 13.5 million units, while Apple Inc (AAPL.O) increased by 49% to 12 million units thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 12 series, the company's first 5G handset.