Electric cars 'will cost same as petrol rivals by 2022'

Long-range electric cars will be available at the same price as their petrol and diesel rivals by 2022, says a new report by Bloomberg Business.

Battery prices fell by 35 per cent in 2015 and the current trajectory suggests unsubsidised plug-in cars will soon become as affordable as conventional ones, signalling "the start of a real mass-market liftoff for electric cars", say Bloomsberg.

"It's looking like the 2020s will be the decade of the electric car," adds the website.

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Sales of electric vehicles grew 60 per cent globally last year, "the same growth rate that helped the Ford Model-T cruise past the horse and buggy in the 1910s". Bloomberg also predicts that by 2040, 35 per cent of new cars sold globally will be electric.

However, Auto Express says this could be an ambitious target considering electric cars currently make up less than one per cent of the automotive industry's sales worldwide. But as batteries account for 30 per cent of the vehicles' fee, diminishing development and production costs could have a "dramatic" effect on the price and plug-in cars should become much more affordable.

Bloomberg also admits that using the 60 per cent sales rise for its predictions makes this an "aggressive forecast" and adds that such a rapid uptake could displace as much as two million barrels of oil a day by 2023 – a glut big enough to trigger an oil crash akin to the one in 2014.

Electricity providers will also have to scramble for new ways to meet demand. If the model outlined in the report is correct, by 2040, plug-in cars will need 1,900 terawatt-hours of electricity – roughly ten per cent of the amount produced last year. A cleaner energy grid combined with electric cars would represent a "mutually beneficial circle of demand", though.