Tesla is one major brand that rings our mind when we think about an electric vehicle, right? But did you know that the already well-established players are also looking for having a strong foothold in the EV market share? You will be surprised that the top players such as Mercedes and Audi have already an electronic lineup that matches Tesla. With the green targets, of major places such as Europe and The United Kingdom, of eliminating fossil fuel-powered cars by 2035, this sudden shift of the top major players is not surprising. The tech has come a long way and with perks like 300+ miles range, EV has merged as an interesting proportion in the market. Here is a list of the top manufacturers that have a solid EV lineup.
“1996 GM EV1 Electric Vehicle 013 N” by Corvair Owner is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
1. Tesla
The brand was started by a bright group of engineers, led by the founder Elon Musk, with only one mission in mind, to make EVs at par with conventional cars. They wanted to prove that an EV doesn’t need to be ugly and just a showpiece trophy, and now see how far they have come. Their Model 3 and Model S are leaders in electric vehicles today. From autonomous driving to a large network of superchargers, the brand has revolutionized the EV sector. The brand has created a separate niche for itself and now, every new EV model is compared with the benchmarks set up by this brand.
2. Mercedes
Mercedes has, in the last 5 years or so, has greatly increased its EV line up, almost all of the Mercedes current fossil fuel-powered modes have an equivalent EV model on offer. Popular among them are C 300h Saloon and Mercedes EQC. The brand has a mix of plug-in hybrid to fully EV models such as EQC. Although the brand has yet to cover a lot to reach the Tesla level, still the current lineup is way more impressive.
3. Audi
Audi e-Tron SUV rings a bell when we associate Audi with an electric vehicle. Audi in such a short span has greatly developed the EV tech. Even the plug-in hybrid options from Audi such as Q5 TFSI e Hybrid are promising colossal amounts of fuel efficiency. The range of their battery-powered cars is a lot to be desired for, but the current technology that Audi is holding promises a great future ahead. Their Q4 e-Tron range is quite affordable and cheap to run too.
4. Toyota
It’s not like only the high-end European brands have joined the EV party. Affordable players such as Toyota have also entered the spectrum. Who can forget the legendary Prius from Toyota? With decades of experience in this tech now, Toyota has an impressive lineup on offer now. The C-HR and IZOA and models from the Lexus family such as UX300e are proving to be innovative when it comes to EV tech. Toyota is planning to sell about 1 million EV and Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by the year 2030. In the last pandemic hit year, Toyota sold more than 1.95 million EV vehicles worldwide according to the website satista.
4. Tata
The new kid on the block is an Indian brand called Tata. the same Tata brand that owns the Jaguar Landrover group. Although the pioneer of EV in India was a Mahindra car called Reva, it was a ‘too little and too early’ kind of situation. It failed terribly in the market. The new Tata Nexon EV promises to give a healthy range of 312kms with a quick charge time of just 30mins. The reviews of this EV from the consumers paint a promising picture. Also, the surprising thing is that the pricing is not going to burn a hole through your pocket. The main EV competition to Tata right now is from Hyundai and MG motors. These brands also have their EV’s launched in the Indian market.
Conclusion
With the onset of stricter rules related to emissions, coming from developed nations, it is about time that we will see a giant leap towards EV technology. No doubt the EV vehicles such as Tesla have proven that they are a proper alternative, but issues such as range anxiety and charging time are still raised by the consumers. I believe that with new technologies such as supercapacitors and quick charge batteries, EVs have a very high chance that they will turn mainstream in the coming decades. There are also multiple EV startups that are paving the way to produce mass manufactured EVs.
