A recent report from Pike Research forecasts that between 2010 and 2015, more than 1.3 million plug-in electric vehicles will be purchased for use in fleet operations, with nearly 400,000 vehicles being sold annually by the end of the forecast period.
“Plug-in electric vehicles are primarily known for their consumer applications, but they will play a greater and greater role in fleets as well,” says senior analyst Dave Hurst.
Hurst adds that automakers will look to the fleet markets in these early years of PEV sales to help bolster production and reduce overall vehicle costs. As a result, passenger cars will be the leading segment in the plug-in electric vehicles fleet market over the next five years, representing more than 80% of total sales in 2015.
Small SUVs will also be an important segment, though their adoption will lag significantly behind passenger cars.
Early adopters for fleet plug-in electric vehicles will include operations that have local, predictable routes such as delivery vehicles and taxis. Pike anticipates that many fleet operators will maintain their own EV charging stations and thus will be relatively insensitive to range and charging infrastructure concerns.
[source: Pike Research]
