**1. Introduction**

Despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on many spheres of daily economic life, electric car sales and the construction of infrastructure for their charging and use are accelerating worldwide. Around the world, governments and representatives of vehicle manufacturers alike are recognising that the transition to electric vehicles can be an opportunity to simultaneously pursue two fundamental, often mutually exclusive, goals, namely economic growth and sustainable development that address issues related to the reduction in negative environmental impact [1].

In Southeast Asia, as in other regions, the benefits of vehicle electrification are tangible and widespread. In addition to favourable regulations, governments desire to fulfil obligations regarding the changes in climate, reduction in pollution (including air), and visible improvement of energy supply security. It should also be noted that the Asian market offers many possibilities due to the presence of well-established automotive manufacturing centres in countries such as Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand [2].

This article attempts to analyse the current market situation in selected Asian countries and presents potential directions of development. Furthermore, this article presents the benefits of transition to electric cars [3]. When exploring electric vehicles, it is important to consider how to deal with the growing global demand for vehicles and, thus, fuel consumption and air pollution, as well as emission of greenhouse gases and other harmful substances such as particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur oxide (SOx) in some urban areas. Gradually deployed EV technology can ultimately lead to improved energy efficiency and positively impact the environment and human health [4].

However, it should be clearly indicated that the source of electricity generation is the most important factor for electric vehicle policy, and in some cases BEV production may emit more CO2 than conventional vehicles [5]. For example, a joint research project

**Citation:** Gomółka, K.; Kasprzak, P. Directions and Prospects for the Development of the Electric Car Market in Selected ASEAN Countries. *Energies* **2021**, *14*, 7509. https:// doi.org/10.3390/en14227509

Academic Editor: Tomasz Korol

Received: 22 October 2021 Accepted: 7 November 2021 Published: 10 November 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

between Mazda and Kogakuin University estimated the CO2 emission of conventional and electric vehicles in Japan, China, Australia, Europe, and the USA [6]. The results of the study showed that BEVs in Australia do not emit less CO2 than conventional vehicles due to the country's heavy reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation. In Japan, China, Europe, and the USA, some conventional vehicles, under certain conditions, generated less CO2 than BEVs. Thus, the implementation of electric vehicle development policy must be comprehensive, taking into account a number of economic, environmental, technological, and administrative and legal factors [7].

The article is an innovative attempt to analyse, evaluate, and present possible prospects for the development of the electric vehicle market of the ASEAN group of countries from various perspectives (regulations, consumer approach, infrastructure challenges, etc.). Although these countries are relatively rich and developed, they remain, at least in the electric car market, overshadowed by China, which has quickly become not only a local but also a global leader in this industry.

It is worth noting that China, Korea, and Japan have recently announced a number of targets for the decarbonisation and complete elimination of conventionally powered vehicles in the upcoming decades. Other countries in the region, including in particular ASEAN countries, are expected to make similar decisions. This, in turn, will mean a rapidly progressing revolution both in the overall industry and in other sectors of the economy, including an important branch—transport.

Changes, apart from the progressive decisions of individual governments, will also be forced by global decisions made at cyclical climate conferences, which define various goals. ASEAN, which is an organization of economic and political cooperation between 10 countries, can be expected to take coordinated actions, such as those undertaken in Europe by the European Union, imposing specific and ambitious climate goals on individual members within the electric car industry.

The article presents collective data from specialist studies, reports, and analyses. The study was supplemented with an analysis of the literature using the methods of deduction and inference as well as a data analysis comparison method. The article combines the use of scientific methods with quantitative data from industry reports.

Prior to analysing the situation of electric vehicles, including data on the volume of sales and the structure of the electric car market, as well as legal and administrative conditions for the operation of infrastructure related to electric vehicles, first of all, it is important to draw attention to the definition of an electric car [8]. This is because different agencies and research institutes define this concept differently [9]. With the above in mind, it should be acknowledged that among the cars that today are, in principle, considered to be electric cars, three basic types of vehicles can be distinguished. These include the following types of vehicles [10]:


The HEV group does not allow the car to be recharged from an external source (the primary driving motor is the combustion engine, while the electric motor is only a supporting unit—the energy to power it is acquired from the vehicle's braking—so-called hybrid vehicles) [11]. For the purpose of this article, the authors only considered the first three types of vehicles, i.e., BEVs, PHEVs, and FCEVs. However, it is worth noting that the production and sales of FCEVs is very small, and often the number of these vehicles is not even included in official statistics (Figure 1).

**Figure 1.** PHEV, BEV, and FCEV sales cars worldwide, 2010–2020. Source: https://www.iea.org/articles/global-ev-data-ex plorer (accessed on 10 October 2021).
