Electric vehicles: the revolution is finally here

 Electric vehicles: the revolution is finally here

After years of talk from carmakers, the industry is rapidly being transformed as companies stake their future on EVs.  

This is the first part of an FT series analysing how the electric vehicle market is rapidly taking off

At the start of the year, executives at electric carmaker Polestar drew up ambitious sales plans for the UK. Within weeks, they had to tear them up.

Demand was rising so quickly that the new targets were a third higher. Today the Volvo-backed company runs around 1,000 test drives a month in the UK alone. Each week, new spaces are booked up within an hour of becoming available.

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https://www.ft.com/content/fb4d1d64-5d90-4e27-b77f-6e221bc02696

Until four years ago, Polestar specialised in tuning high performance combustion engines: now it has been transformed into one of the companies trying to tap the booming demand for battery cars. “This isn’t the niche market it was two or three years ago,” says Polestar’s UK boss Jonathan Goodman.

This extraordinary surge in demand is being felt right across the world, from Shanghai to Stuttgart, Tokyo to Toronto, and from new brands to the established giants of the industry