Business News

Policy push by various countries and stricter emission norms are fuelling electric vehicle sales every year across key global markets, shows data from the International Energy Agency.However, penetration of hybrids (including strong hybrids and plug-in hybrids), driven purely by consumer choice, are climbing up at a faster pace. Since 2021, hybrid vehicle sales have been rising steadily in China, Japan, Korea, UK, France, and US, underscoring growing consumer preference for this technology, shows data collated by Nomura Research Institute.China leads the trend with a nearly fourfold surge in hybrid penetration levels to 19.9% in the first half of 2024 from 5.3% in 2021. Korea too has seen a big jump - to 25.2% from 11.8% in the same period. Other markets have shown a similar growth trajectory.India, a relatively small market for electrified vehicles, too has seen penetration of hybrids inch up to 2.5% in the first half of 2024 from 2% in 2023, according to data from industry sources. The figure trails battery electric vehicle (BEV) penetration by a small margin even though the latter enjoys benefits of lower GST rate of 5% and road tax exemption in a few states.Interestingly, the share of hybrids in the Indian market is showing an uptick even though the number of hybrid models in the mainstream segment are much fewer compared to EV counterparts.