Major Developments in 2022
The United States (U.S.) population continues to rely on vehicles for personal transportation. Because of the improvement in the global COVID-19 pandemic situation, individuals drove more and there was improvement from 2021. The cumulative national vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for the year 2022 was 3,169.4 billion vehicle miles (data available till the end of December 2022), which represents an increase of 0.9% (+29.3 billion vehicle miles) compared to the prior year. Sales of electric vehicles in the U.S. in 2022 continued the rapid rebound and increased nearly 46% from their 2021 value (927,572 in 2022 compared to 635,591 in 2021), the cumulative total reached 3.28 million plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) using December 2010 as the base.
Industry and Market
Market developments included:
- Ford is investing $2 billion USD in EV production in Michigan as part of a $3.7 billion USD expansion of EV production across Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.
- GM is investing $6.5 billion USD in a new battery factory being built in partnership with LG Energy Solution to manufacture Chevy and GMC e-trucks, to which Michigan is providing $824 million USD worth of incentives.
- VW announced it will invest $7.1B to produce EVs in North America and offer 25 new EV models to customers by 2030.
- Stellantis and Samsung SDI plan to invest over $2.5 billion USD in joint venture for Li-ion battery plant in Kokomo, Indiana, with an initial capacity of 23GWh/year, increasing to 33GWh over time.
Battery Technology developments included:
- Solid-state Li-metal battery company Quantum Scape announced its battery cells have completed 400 consecutive 15-minute fast-charging (4C) cycles from 10% to 80% of the cell’s capacity at above 80% of the initial energy.
- Another market player, Farasis Energy said it has developed and validated a direct recycling process for Li-ion batteries.
Charging Infrastructure developments included:
- Electrify America said it raised $450 million USD in a deal that includes its first external investor as it aims to accelerate its rollout of fast charging stations in the U.S. and Canada.
Policy and Government
Federal Government policy developments included:
- DOE, in coordination with DOL and the AFL-CIO, announced the launch of a national workforce development strategy for Li-battery manufacturing. As part of a $5M investment, DOE will support up to five pilot training programs in energy and automotive communities and advance workforce partnerships between industry and labor for the domestic Li-battery supply chain.
- DOE awarded $2.8 billion USD to 21 projects to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for EVs and the electrical grid and for materials and components imported from other countries.
Outlook
Global sales of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty PEVs are estimated to continue growing according to forecasts from Bloomberg New Energy Finance which forecasts that EVs will become cheaper to make than gasoline vehicles and will globally sell 30 million units in 2030.
Electrification remains an integral feature of self-driving cars, as evidenced by ongoing test projects at Ford, GM, Uber, Waymo, and other auto industry members. As this technology achieves the performance and cost claimed by its advocates and remains EV-based, the share of electrified vehicle miles travelled could increase substantially.
Annual sales of EVs will be nearly 5.6 million in 2030, i.e., more than 32 percent of annual light-duty vehicle sales in 2030. Accordingly, nearly 12.9 million charge ports will be needed to support the projected 26.4 million EVs that will be on U.S. roads in 2030. Of this amount, approximately 140,000 Direct Current (DC) fast charging ports will be needed to support the level of EVs expected to be on U.S. roads in 2030.
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