Half of the cars sold in large markets will be electric by 2030

Electric vehicles will account for about half of car sales in the world’s major markets by 2030, when their prices are estimated to reach parity with gasoline cars, according to a survey of auto industry executives.

Electric vehicles will constitute 52% of the markets of USA, Japan and China and 49% of Western Europe, according to average estimates in a survey of more than 1,000 global automotive leaders released Tuesday by consulting firm KPMG.

The significant adoption compared to less than 10% of the current global market will be driven by battery-powered models that will achieve a cost equivalent to that of vehicles powered by traditional internal combustion engines, the executives projected.

Despite the bullish outlook on EV growth, market share predictions varied widely, leading to KPMG to conclude that there is still no consensus on how dominant exactly the plug-in models will become.

Beyond price, a key to enticing consumers to buy electric cars is cutting charging times to less than 30 minutes, up from more than 3 hours today, three-quarters of executives said.

“The adoption of electric vehicles in many markets has been restricted by the limited number of models available”, He wrote in the study Megumu Comic, partner of KPMG in Japan. “Strong pipeline of new EV model launches in the next 24 months will create more options for consumers”.

Automakers are investing billions in electrifying their lineups. General Motors Co. has set a goal of offering only plug-in models by the middle of the next decade, while Ford Motor Co. noted that up to half of its global sales will be battery-powered by 2030.

Tesla Inc., which currently dominates the global market for electric vehicles, is building big new factories in Texas and Berlin.

As auto executives dedicate their efforts to building facilities to prepare for the next electrical age, they worry about finding enough workers. About 55% of respondents worldwide said they are very or extremely concerned about the labor shortage. In the United States, 70% of executives fear they will not be able to fill all the positions that will be available to them.

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that in September there were more than half a million unfilled job openings in the durable goods manufacturing sector.