Green cars causing aftermarket opportunity to grow, according to Search Auto Parts.
When it comes to the mass adoption of electric vehicles, it seems history is repeating itself. Recently, I came across this line while doing some research: “The popularity of the electric car was hampered by a lack of battery-charging infrastructure.” While electric-vehicle infrastructure remains a challenge today, this is not a recent quote. It is not from the early 1990s, when General Motors tried to launch the EV1. This line was used in an article on Britanica.com to describe the state of electric vehicles in 1910.
Since we still haven’t solved the electric-vehicle infrastructure issue in more than 100 years, it’s no small wonder that electric vehicles account for just more than 2 percent of all alternative powertrain vehicles on the road today. Gas-electric hybrids, on the other hand, account for nearly 98 percent of all alternative-powertrain vehicles.
There are, however, positive signs of growth for both electric vehicles and hybrids. According to our recent analysis, electric vehicles grew their sales by 245 percent in 2013, while hybrids grew by 19 percent. For electric vehicles, growth was spurred primarily by the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S, which are currently the top-two selling all-electric vehicles on the market. For hybrids, the Toyota Prius remains an immensely popular vehicle and is the top selling hybrid today. Other top-five hybrid models include the Toyota Camry, Honda Civic, Toyota Highlander and Ford Fusion.
