The development of the world fleet of electric vehicles in years 2010–2017 with emphasis on fuel-cell vehicles

The article discusses the development of the world EV fleet in years 2010-2017. Estimates of fleet of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and BEV in the world are presented. The total number of PHEVs registered in the world in 2016 was roughly 800 thousand (650 thousand in EU). Despite the fact that the sale of electric vehicles has increased considerably in recent years, in particular over 1.1 million in 2017, and also hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) to approx. 760 thousand in 2017. The article also discusses the development of the electric vehicles market and annual new registrations of vehicles in a breakdown into respective countries. China is the definite leader in this area. In 2017 there were almost twice more BEVs registered in China than in the US and EU together. While the increase in the sale of BEVs in years 2016-2017 in the EU and the US accounted for approx. 50%, it came to over 90% in China. Among eight top worldwide BEV producers, there are four Chinese manufacturers. In the analysed 2017, there were slightly more than 7 thousand of hydrogen-fuelled passenger cars (FCEV) in use, with over 3,500 in the US, 2,300 in Japan and approx. 1,200 in Europe, and several hundred hydrogen-fuelled buses and several dozen hydrogen-fuelled trucks. The article also addresses the development of hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) in recent years in different countries in the world, bearing in mind that the quantitative development of the hydrogen-fuelled car fleet is strongly associated with the number of hydrogen refuelling stations.