Significant increases in uptake of electric vehicles are essential to meeting future emissions standards, a new report finds.

The analysis on ‘E-mobility: closing the emissions gap’ by the World Energy Council sets out that the combined market share for EVs will need to expand to 16% by 2020 – compared to its current level of less than 1% across the world – to meet plans to lower transport emissions.

With a collective annual demand of over 40 million passenger vehicles, three of the largest car markets in the world, the EU, US and China, have all set fuel economy improvement targets of approximately 30% for cars from 2014-2020 (as measured in NEDC gCO2/km), which are expected to exceed forecasted new internal combustion engine (ICE) powered car capabilities.

To meet these standards, EV sales in Europe will need to grow by 1.4 million, 10% of the estimated 2020 projected passenger sales by 2020. In the US, the figure stands at 0.9 million (11%) and in China roughly 5.3 million, 22% of the projected passenger car sales, according to the research published by the Council in collaboration with Accenture Strategy.

Stuart Solomon, managing director, Accenture Strategy, added that utilities need to play a critical role to help close the emissions gap through more widespread adoption of EVs, adding that this is “not only to ensure a reliable electricity supply, given the added pressure from plugging more EVs into an already stressed grid network, but also by making sure that any added demand for electricity to power EVs increasingly comes from clean power sources”.