COVID-19 impacts on electric

vehicles industry worldwide

Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, almost all the businesses are getting impact. Many industries including the emerging electric vehicles industry are facing dropping in sales, imports and exports, supply chains, etc. So far more than 47,208 people died worldwide.

The coronavirus outbreak is impacting on the green energy sector including the battery energy storage, renewable energy sources, renewable heating and cooling.

COVID-19 impacts on EVs

Due to this virus, many people’s lives are effecting as well as there is a huge impact on emerging technologies such as EVs.

Reasons for slowdown the EV industry 

• Limitations on labour movement made the battery production stopped.
• Lower output of battery manufacturers by around 26GWH in 2020 in China.
• The supply limitations impact the global EV market.
• Impacted the stock prices
• Shortage of EV components 

There are around five million electric vehicles in the world. Where China is leading in terms of the largest EV market, then comes Europe and the US. 

The major manufacturers also such as Volkswagen (VW), Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot, and Renault have closed down some of their production facilities for varying time periods.

But the world’s biggest EV market, China is witnessing the fall in sales of vehicles and many other things. According to preliminary data from the China Passenger Car Association, the retails sales of passenger cars fell by 80% in February.

As China is the major leader in refining cobalt which is an important element in the EV batteries. The sustained impact on the cobalt processing facilities could affect the electric vehicles costs.

Read: Coronavirus impacts on sales of EVs

The BYD’s electric vehicles sales went down to 79.5% year over year. The state-owned BAIC Group’s sale is down by 65.1% compared to a year ago. Volkswagen’s EV partner JAC last month sales went down to 63.4%.

Most importantly the virus is impacting on the EV supply chain. The automakers are struggling with supplies of the electric car batteries. 

The oil is cheaper and gas become less expensive at the pumps which results in the decreasing interest in the electric vehicles. The analysts claim that lower oil prices are the main reason for Tesla’s shares fall. The oil prices in the New York Mercantile Exchange flirted this week with $30 a barrel.

Tesla’s new Shanghai car plant and stores have been temporarily shut down throughout the country. Most of the events being cancelled.

The General Motors cancelled its next month’s planned to unveil of all-electric Cadillac Lyriq.

Nissan’s UK factory in Sunderland has been shut down results in stop in the production of electric vehicles (EVs) and motor cars.

Also, the installations of Electric vehicle charging points in the UK stopped. Many charging stations providers such as Pod Point, Ubricity stopped installing “non-essential” public EV charge points and private EV connectors.

According to provisional government data, there is a huge fall in India’s electricity usage, it fell 9.2% in March. The electricity consumption is dropped for the first time in three months.

The state-run Power System Operation Corp Ltd (POSOCO) data analysis, Consumers used 100.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in March when compared with 110.33 billion units last year.

In India, Consumers used 100.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in March when compared with 110.33 billion units last year.

Two-fifth of India’s annual electricity consumption is from industries and northern states of Punjab and Haryana witnessed highest rates of declines to 20% as they are the major agricultural states.

While major industrial states such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu fell over a fifth.

Vietnam third-biggest car seller Hyundai assembler TC Motor and Honda Vietnam have closed their plants for two weeks to maintain social distancing due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Whereas, South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) domestic sales were down 40% at 26,300 units as against 44,350 units in March 2019.

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