Consultant cuts growth outlook for electric cars

Consultant cuts growth outlook for electric cars

By Donal on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 8:26pm |

Electric cars might make up 5 percent or less of the U.S. auto market by 2020, a consulting group said on Tuesday, cutting its prior estimate at a time when automakers are racing to develop such vehicles.

Improvements in internal combustion engines and a more modest forecast for oil prices prompted Boston Consulting Group to tweak its estimates from three years ago in its upcoming report titled "Powering Autos to 2020."

"The surge in oil price in 2008 had pushed everybody to work much harder on improvements," Xavier Mosquet, the global head of the group's autos practice, told reporters. "The good news is the ICE (internal combustion engine) improvements come at a lower cost than expected three years ago."

[h/t TTAC]

URL:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/14/us-autos-electric-idUSTRE75D5TG20110614