(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.
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.