For car companies with big electric ambitions, 2021 will be a year of branding or rest.
More than a dozen new electric vehicle models will hit U.S. showrooms this year as Silicon Valley-inspired startups and established automakers like General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG show drivers the results of billions in technology spending.
For consumers, this will mean more new car connector options than ever before. But it is still uncertain whether vehicle manufacturers can convince buyers to stop smoking fossil fuels for good.
Many challenges remain for electric vehicles: there are not enough places to charge, limited range and sticker prices that are even higher than similar vehicles running on conventional gasoline engines. An existing federal tax credit worth $ 7,500 aims to help bridge the price gap and industry representatives have said they hope to expand the benefit through new legislation.
The influx of new electric car models helped boost sales of battery-powered vehicles in Europe and China last year. But in the United States, where buyers had fewer options and less in terms of government-backed incentives, electric car sales fell about 10% in 2020, according to industry analysts.