New electric vehicles on the road

For car manufacturers with big electric ambitions, 2021 will be a decisive year.

More than a dozen new electric vehicle models are expected to 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 billion dollars in technology spending.

For consumers, this will mean more plug-in options on the new batch of cars than ever before. But whether automakers can persuade buyers to ditch fossil fuels for good, it remains uncertain.

Many challenges remain for electric vehicles: not enough places to charge, limited range and even higher sticker prices than similar rides powered by conventional gasoline engines. An existing federal tax credit worth $ 7,500 is intended to help close the price gap and industry representatives have said they hope to increase the benefit through new legislation.

An influx of new models of electric cars helped boost sales of battery-powered vehicles in Europe and China last year. But in the United States, where buyers had fewer choices and fewer government-backed incentives, sales of electric cars fell about 10% in 2020, industry analysts said.