Automotive Alternative Fuel Vehicle Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Automotive Alternative Fuel Vehicle Market is anticipated to register a CAGR of about 15 %, during the forecast period (2020 - 2025).

Key Highlights

• The major factors driving the growth of alternative fuel vehicles market are growing pollution levels all around the world and strict government norms to reduce them, the increasing demand for vehicles, buying capacity of the people because of the increase in income levels.
• The increasing demand for vehicles is driven by factors such as growing income levels of people living around the world and also the growing population, decrease in levels of fossil fuels is also a reason that an alternative for them is being searched, so that by the time fossil fuels depletes or becomes to price heavy there will be a strong alternative for them.
• Electric Vehicles are dominating the alternative fuel vehicle market. The growth drivers for Electric vehicles sales are the environmentally friendly nature of the fuel as it emits no pollutants in the atmosphere and high subsidy provided by government around the world. By the end of year 2018, there were around 5.1 million electric vehicles in use globally with a growth rate of around 60% yearly.
• In June 2019, the Indian Automobile industry body, SIAM has proposed making petrol-powered two-wheelers and passenger vehicles material compatible with 10 per cent ethanol (E10) and 3 per cent methanol (M3) blends by 2025.

Key Market Trends

Stringent Government rules and regulations will drive growth in the market

Countries such as the United States, Germany, France, China and India have enforced government laws and regulation for vehicular emission, and have mandated the automobile manufacturers to use advance technologies to combat high emission levels in vehicle.

• According to Environmental Protection Agency, the permissible levels of CO is 3.4g/mi and NOX is 0.4 g/mi for light duty vehicles.
• The California Air Resources Board launched California vehicle emissions program, which includes requirements for manufacturers to produce and deliver zero-emission vehicles. The current ZEV regulations mandate substantial annual increase in the production and sale of battery-electric, fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
• By 2025, approximately 15% of the total sales of manufacturers in California would be through sale of such vehicles. Other parts of the world are also expected to enforce strict norms, and this will drive the growth in the market.
• The government of Norway is providing benefits like no road tax, no import tax for electric vehicle buyers and spending heavily on improving the infrastructure for charging stations and technology to reduce charging time, with an aim to become 100% eco-drive zone by 2025.

The South American countries are the largest producers of Ethanol Fuel for several years. In Brazil the production rate of Ethanol fuel is rising with a rate of almost 5% yearly and Brazil is the largest exporter of Ethanol as fuel in the world. In the year 2018, the sales of ethanol-based cars in the Latin America region were almost 40% of total cars sales, which is expected to further grow over the forecast period. The sales of diesel vehicles in the region are also declining with rate of at least 9% annually, which in-turn is driving the demand for alternative fuel vehicles.

Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market during the forecast period

During the forecast period it is expected that the automobiles sales in the Asia-Pacific region will be the highest in the world. The growing income level of people living and presence of countries like China and India which are the world’s major developing economies is driving the market. The income level of people living in these countries is expected to rise during the forecast period which will enable them to buy more automobiles which in turn will drive the growth in the market. Due to the developing nature of these countries the pollution level is also on the higher side with compared to other parts of the world. So, it is expected that the governments in this region will take strong steps to bring these pollution levels down, so it is expected that during the forecast period the demand for alternative fuel vehicles will grow. During the last year the sales of passenger cars in the region fell by around 7%.

However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the automotive sales are expected to go up during the forecast period because due to the practice of social distancing and the life of virus on the surface, people are expected to avoid using public transport and buy their own automobiles, the people are likely to adapt alternative fuel vehicles over the conventional petrol and diesel vehicles. With the increasing oil prices, the use of alternative fuels is expected to be the possible alternative and this has substantially increased the sales of electric vehicles in the region.

During the last five years period, the sales of battery electric vehicles has risen by around 71% in the region. Government in the region are also spending on infrastructure to boost demand for alternative fuel vehicles, like installing charging points for EVs and CNG stations. For instance, the Indian Government is planning to set up 10,000 CNG stations in the coming years to boost sales of CNG vehicles in the region.

Companies like Maruti Suzuki in India, which is the largest car manufacturer in the region are providing company fitted CNG kits in 8 out of total 16 cars in its portfolio, which accounts for around 7% total car sales for the car maker. With the introduction of BS-VI emission standards in the region several major players have decided to stop manufacturing Diesel variants of their cars and this will increase the demand for CNG and hybrid vehicles.

Competitive Landscape

The Automotive Alternative Fuel Vehicle market is fragmented, with many players accounting for significant amounts of shares in the market. Some of the prominent companies in the Automotive Alternative Fuel Vehicle market are Tesla, BMW, BYD, Audi, Hyundai and others. Companies are investing heavily in research and development for the innovation of new and advanced products and technologies that may help for new technology

• In September 2019, BMW unveiled its BMW i-Hydrogen NEXT at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show. In 2022, the BMW Group is planning to present the next generation of hydrogen fuel cell electric drive systems in a small-series vehicle based on the current BMW X5.

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