In Norway electric vehicles outsold gasoline cars for first time in history and other EV success stories

One way to boost the ecological benefits of driving an EV even further is to manufacture these cars using net carbon zero techniques. Audi’s factory in Brussels aims to do just that.

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Electric cars are coming on like gangbusters, as ranges increase and prices fall dramatically. Here are 6 headlines pointing to the green car future:

1. In Norway, electric vehicles in March 2019, outsold gasoline-driven cars for the first time.

2. Indeed, electric vehicles in Norway were responsible for 58% of all sales last month.

3. Volkswagen not only plans a new fleet of electric cars but it plans an affordable $22,000 EV by 2023.

4. Chinese consumers had been buying 600,000 electric cars a year until 2018, when they bought 1.3 million EVs, increasing the purchases by 62%. Although China is reducing its subsidies for electric cars as the market matures, that step is thought unlikely to hurt sales in the medium to long run. Lithium-ion batteries have come down substantially in price and are expected to continue to do so.

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5. By 2030, electric vehicles will be cheaper to buy than old-fashioned internal combustion engines, across the board.

6. Making electric cars is itself a high-carbon process, although EVs over their lifetime put out much less carbon dioxide than do electric cars, even including the manufacturing process. One way to boost the ecological benefits of driving an EV even further is to manufacture these cars using net carbon zero techniques. Audi’s factory in Brussels aims to do just that.

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And remember that when homeowners have solar panels on their homes, they can pay off the panels and a new EV more quickly, and the fuel is free.

Would you drive an EV car or do you already? Share your thoughts below.

Juan Cole teaches Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. His new book, The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation Is Changing the Middle East (Simon and Schuster), will officially be published July 1st. He is also the author of Engaging the Muslim World and Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (both Palgrave Macmillan). He has appeared widely on television, radio and on op-ed pages as a commentator on Middle East affairs, and has a regular column at Salon.com. He has written, edited, or translated 14 books and has authored 60 journal articles. His weblog on the contemporary Middle East is Informed Comment.

*Article originally appeared at Common Dreams.