Number of registered BEV and PHEV vehicles in 2011-2016 (in thousands)

There are three main types of vehicles that are generally regarded as an electric car. These include: BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) - fully electric vehicle with installed battery, which is the only source of power, PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) - a hybrid vehicle (i.e. with a gasoline and electric petrol engine) with the ability to charge the battery as the additional source of power, HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) - a hybrid vehicle without the ability to charge battery from the grid (the electricity is generated by the installation of a conventional internal combustion engine). The last group of cars is not based on the electric source but rather on traditional fuel. Therefore the authors due to the purposes of this article have included BEV and PHEV into research only. These vehicles are actually an alternative to combustion engines The global market of electric vehicles currently record a 50% annual increase in sales (Global EV Outlook 2017). In 2016 the world sales was in total of 750 thousand cars. The largest market is in China with the volume of 336 thousand vehicles sold. The second biggest market is in the United States - 160 thousand cars. Third place is a Japanese one. As far as the European market is concerned, the vast majority of fleets are concentrated in just several countries i.e.: Norway, Great Britain, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden. In 2016, a total of over 2 million new electric vehicles were registered worldwide. As it was mentioned, mostly in China, the United States and Japan. From the data presented, it can be concluded that the increase in the number of BEV and PHEV vehicles over five years is substantial, in some cases even several times. This does not mean, however, that the share of electric vehicles among all automobiles has increased significantly. In order for this to happen, the number of newly registered combustion cars would have to be declining or at least stay unchanged.