With more and more cities announcing or contemplating diesel and petrol bans, electric cars are rapidly becoming a financially sound decision for professional and personal use alike. A new raft of government multi-billion-euro bailouts prompted by the virus outbreak is also set to increase the choice of models available and a fall in list price, as companies like Renault and Volkswagen will have to hit ambitious production targets. According to Bloomberg, 10% of new sales globally will be electric cars by 2024 and 28% in 2030, with much of that demand coming from China and Europe. That boost will largely be prompted by a rapid decrease in battery costs, which form the bulk of purchase prices. Relatively new technologies aside, an old cast member of the transport scene is due for more than a cameo appearance in the coming years: train travel is due a resurgence too.
THE YEAR OF RAIL According to UBS Research, a shift in consumer habits will be a boon to Europe’s high-speed rail market, which is on track to grow 10% every year this decade. The EU even wants to declare 2021 ‘The European Year of Rail’. Passengers are generally willing to go on longer and perhaps more expensive journeys, if there are plus points like a lower carbon footprint and an improved travel experience, opening the door for trains to eat away at cheap short-haul flights. Rail operators are starting to cotton on to that change in behaviour by bringing nighttrains out of storage, long moth-balled due chiefly to lack of profitability and interest from rapid transit junkies. The coronavirus may have dealt a heavy body blow to the aviation and cruise industries but for slower nodes, better suited to a postpandemic world, the outbreak may prove to be the catalyst for a major shift in how we all get around.
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