World Car Jurors Expect Battery Electric Vehicles To Remain The No.1 Trend

Electric Vehicles (EVs) have been one of the most stressed upon developments in the automotive world of late. In the last couple of years, there's been a steady increase in the number of EV launches across the globe and in the Indian market as well. The trend is on the upswing and even according to World Car Awards (WCOTY) jurors, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) will remain the number one trend across global markets in 2022. In fact, out of 18 trends, BEV has been rated as the most important trend by WCOTY jurors followed by efficiency, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), safety, quality, design, interior and infotainment upgradation including connected tech, budget cars & affordability and plug-in-hybrids among others.

While BEVs remains the number one trend, autonomous cars, fuel cell tech and shared mobility receive lowest ratings.

Very surprisingly, fuel cell technology, autonomous driving and shared mobility were among the lowest rated trends according to the jurors. Shared mobility is the least important trend here which is likely as people have been quite skeptical about this space given the COVID-19 outbreak. Personal transportation has certainly taken centre stage post this pandemic. This also has given a shot in the arm to the used car market both in India and globally.

There has been a significant improvement in consumer interest regarding BEVs in the last decade.

Now coming back to battery electric vehicles, there has been a significant improvement in consumer interest in the last decade. In 2013, consumers were not very sure and their interest was rated as mixed for EVs. There has been a consistent improvement in the graph and it has been highest in 2021 as evaluated by experts.

According to a market study, while BEVs, Hydrogen fuel and petrol have a bright future, Diesel, LPG, CNG and Ethanol powered vehicles have dark outlook.

According to a market study, this has primarily happened because in most of the markets including South America, North America, Europe, Africa & ME and Asia Pacific region (APAC), BEVs have a brighter future compared to other fuels. While North America and APAC were a bit hesitant regarding BEVs, South America, Europe and Africa & ME were very sure. This trend was followed by Hydrogen where all regions have mixed feeling for the technology while Europe was most hesitant. As far as conventional fuels petrol and diesel are concerned, all regions are more or less sure about petrol remaining as one of the mainstays, except Europe that's a bit skeptical. Having said that, almost all regions are unsure about the future of diesel vehicles and its has a critical outlook. Moreover, fuels like LPG, CNG and even Ethanol have very dark outlook across markets according to the survey.