Power utilities are trialling vehicle-to-grid tech as EV sales...

Power utilities are trialling vehicle-to-grid tech as EV sales ramp up
The number of electric vehicles sold throughout the world just passed 4 million — and sales are increasing at an exponential rate, say researchers at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.It took five years for electric vehicle (or “EV”) sales to reach 1 million in 2015.It took just six months to go from 3 million to 4 million this year. The 5 millionth EV will be sold by March. (See graph below).
That’s good news for investors in “battery metals” such as lithium, cobalt and graphite that are needed by car-makers to power EVs.It’s also good news for producers of materials such as copper, nickel and rare earths that are used in electric car engines, parts and charging infrastructure.
The 4 million electric passenger cars are in addition to sales of more than 421,000 “e-buses”.China accounts for more than 40 per cent of electric car sales — and pretty much all the e-buses. Europe and the US are at about 25 per cent each, though sales of Tesla’s new Model 3 may skew that number to North America.The only barrier to sales growth was “if sales of the Tesla Model 3 were to slow down”, which underlines the importance of Elon Musk’s car-maker, Bloomberg said in its quarterly Global Electrified Transport Market Outlook.