German carmakers VW, BMW and Daimler are set to overtake Chinese rivals to become global market leaders for electric cars from 2021, according to business consultancy McKinsey. The German trio will likely double their worldwide output to more than 1 million fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars (EVs) this year, McKinsey forecast in its Electric Vehicle Index. In 2021, this number is set to rise to 1.7 million vehicles, overtaking Chinese companies. German carmakers’ share of global e-car production will increase from 18 percent in the past year to 29 percent in 2024, McKinsey said, according to Clean Energy Wire.

The consultancy added that Europe was turning into a hotspot for e-mobility, given that new registrations of pure battery-electric cars and plug-ins rose 44 percent on the continent to more than 600,000 last year, compared to an increase of merely 3 percent in China to 1.2 million and a decline of 12 percent in the US to 300,000.