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Electric Cars Are Going to Suck Up 9% of World's Power Demand

Electric vehicles are going to be sucking up a whole lot more of the world’s power in coming years.

Electric Cars Are Going to Suck Up 9% of World's Power Demand
An attendee looks at a charging cable at the EV Trend Korea 2018 exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. (Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) -- With batteries getting cheaper and governments promoting their use, electric vehicles are going to be sucking up a whole lot more of the world’s power in coming years.

How much? About 9 percent of total global electricity demand by 2050 will come from vehicles, according to a report Tuesday by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That’s up from about 0.2 percent now. In some places it will be even higher, like Germany, where the London-based research company expects as much as 24 percent.

Electric Cars Are Going to Suck Up 9% of World's Power Demand

That growth is driven by battery prices that are expected to fall by two-thirds by 2030, as well as new time-of-use rate policies from utilities that encourage consumers to charge their cars when demand is low and power is cheap, according to BNEF.

“Prices have come down faster than we expected,” Salim Morsy, a New York-based analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an interview. “Lower battery prices unlock more EVs.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Eckhouse in New York at beckhouse@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Will Wade, Joe Ryan

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.