Juniper: Hybrid, plug-in numbers will jump 42% by 2020

Excuse us for a minute, but can we say that installing charging stations at the bottom of lampposts may shed some light on more plug-in vehicle sales. Thank you, thank you. This kind of infrastructure improvement will be key to getting more people to buy plug-in vehicles, and, according to Juniper, it’s likely in the works. The research company forecasts that the number of hybrids and plug-ins on the world’s roads will jump to 17 million by the end of the decade, up from 12 million last year. More than half of those vehicles will be in China, while almost a quarter will be in North America. That’s pretty optimistic, considering that last year, the number of hybrids, plug-ins and diesels sold in the US actually fell about 16 percent to about 516,000 units.

As for the UK, a government poll revealed that 39 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t consider buying a plug-in because of the challenges of finding a place to recharge. To that end, the UK government earlier this year awarded 40 million pounds (about $57 million) to be split among four cities – London, Bristol, Nottingham, and Milton Keynes – for recharging infrastructure. Nottingham plans to add 200 charging outlets around town, while London will work on those lampposts.

Juniper ranked what it said are the “Top 5” electric vehicle makers, judged by range, sales, infrastructure implementation, amount of time spent in development; and future plans and innovation. Not surprisingly, Tesla Motors came out on top, followed by BMW, Nissan, Chevrolet and Ford, though Tesla and Chevy were given extra mentions for their efforts to address range anxiety. How would you rank the OEMs on this front?

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