From Hong Kong to Honduras – what affordable electrification actually means
The official theme of this year’s World EV Day was: “Switching Electric: driving down the cost of motoring”. In an exclusive guest column for Just Auto, Rajvi Kothari, Group General Counsel & Chief Sustainability Officer, Inchcape plc, offers her thoughts on automotive electrification and affordability.
2026 has seen higher living costs and volatile energy prices put households under increasing pressure and lead to changing consumer spending habits. When purchasing a car, the cost to buy is increasingly being overshadowed by the cost to own and run it over the long term. What’s more, herd mentality is at play: as people watch friends, family and neighbours switch to more affordable options and see those choices pay off, the perceived risk of being an early adopter falls.
That being said, our experience across more than 40 markets shows that affordability means different things in different places. The cost of the vehicle matters, but so does the availability of charging, the price of electricity relative to local incomes, access to financing, the choice of models and the confidence that the vehicle will work for everyday life.
There is no single global EV consumer
The global EV story is often told through the lens of its most advanced markets, such as China, Norway and the UK, where charging infrastructure is widespread and consumers are already comfortable with battery EVs (BEVs). Government incentives have supported this position: China exempts new energy vehicles from purchase tax, Norway has offered tax breaks and toll discounts since the 1990s and the UK reinstated its Electric Car Grant in 2025 to reduce upfront costs. These countries tell us a lot about how electrification can progress, but looking at any one market in isolation doesn’t paint a complete picture of the scale, speed and nature of the global transition.
Across the markets we operate in at Inchcape, starting conditions for electrification vary significantly. Infrastructure maturity, grid reliability, income levels, the availability of the right vehicle models, consumer trust in new technology and even the cultural role of the car can differ between markets, even if they happen to be geographically close to one another.
In practice, this means that the question “how do we drive down the cost of motoring through electrification?” has a different answer depending on where you ask it. In some markets, the most affordable route is full BEV adoption, where the charging infrastructure, vehicle availability and policy support are already in place. In others, hybrids can offer a more accessible way to reduce fuel use and running costs while the charging network develops and BEVs become more affordable. In markets where neither is yet realistic for a large proportion of consumers, making the most efficient, lowest-emission ICE vehicles available can still help reduce the cost and environmental impact of mobility today.
The goal is the same: make lower-emission mobility more affordable and accessible. What’s different is how each market gets there.
Where the contrast is sharpest
The gap between markets is most obvious once you look beyond the headline numbers.
In Hong Kong and Singapore, BEV uptake is strong and accelerating. They are dense, high-income markets where policy and infrastructure are already largely in place. Hong Kong’s government has set a target of zero vehicular emissions before 2050 and, as at mid-2026, the territory counted around 17,364 public EV chargers across all 18 districts, [1] with EVs making up close to a fifth of the vehicle fleet. Our own Inchcape One+, added 150 charging points last year, operating fast chargers across our service centres on a pay-per-use basis.
In large, fast-growing markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines, consumer interest in electrification is growing, but the charging network is still developing and vehicle prices relative to local incomes remain a constraint. Total market share for New Energy Vehicles (NEV)* is 24% for Indonesia and 12% for the Philippines. Hybrids are doing the heavy lifting, which reflects what each local market can deliver today: meaningful emissions reductions at scale, achieved on the terms it can support.
Latin America tells a different story again. Across our markets in Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Panama and Peru, the direction is positive. NEV volumes in the Americas grew 66% in 2025, with Chile up 86% and Colombia up 69% and NEV share averaging around 30% across Chile, Bolivia, Panama and Peru. We now offer around 30 NEV models in the region, including 15 BEVs, in response to that growing demand.
The main constraints are charging infrastructure and the realities of EV ownership in markets where incomes are lower and financing costs are higher. Initiatives such as the Copec Voltex fast-charging network, which now has more than 120 points, and the Costa Rica technician training pilot with Bosch are practical, market-specific interventions that move the needle.
In Europe, the most telling story is not in the markets you would expect. Our European markets grew 17% between 2023 and 2025, against 6% market growth, while our BEV and hybrid segment share of 7% compares to an overall market share of 5.5%. It gets more interesting if you zoom in on Central and Eastern Europe, where BEV share has nearly tripled to around 16%, in markets that were not, until recently, considered frontrunners in the transition, but are evidence of the transition progressing when the market conditions are right.
The case for multiple pathways
The goal of decarbonising mobility is more effectively delivered by deploying a targeted, market or region-specific approach , rather than applying a single route globally.
The path forward should be responsive to each country’s infrastructure, socio-economic conditions and automotive market maturity. Our experience across more than 40 markets shows why a single technology pathway will not work equally well everywhere. In markets where the infrastructure and economics are already in place, BEVs can accelerate the transition. In others, hybrids or increasingly efficient ICE vehicles can provide a more accessible route to lower-emission mobility while the conditions for wider electrification develop.
The markets making the fastest progress on emissions reduction are the ones that have matched their technology choices to their local starting conditions, rather than importing a template from elsewhere. Being responsive to local market requirements, and ensuring the right vehicles reach the right markets, is central to making the transition work.
Hybrids, in particular, deserve more credit than they typically receive in the global conversation. In markets where charging infrastructure is still being built out, a hybrid vehicle can deliver a 30–40% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions compared to a conventional ICE vehicle, at a price point that is accessible to a far wider range of consumers than a full BEV. Dismissing this contribution because it is not the end goal overlooks how transitions actually work in practice.
Mobility that works for everyone
The goal is affordable, accessible, lower-emission mobility for as many people as possible.
That goal is not achieved by a transition that works well in a handful of advanced markets and leaves the rest of the world waiting for conditions to catch up.
Inchcape’s presence across markets at very different stages of the transition, from Hong Kong to Honduras, from Reykjavik to rural Colombia, makes clear that progress is possible everywhere. It requires meeting consumers and markets where they are, building charging infrastructure in parallel with vehicle adoption, and offering a model range that reflects the diversity of what consumers in different markets can actually afford and use.
The transition to lower-emission mobility will differ in every market, at varying speeds and with the help of diverse technologies. Inchcape’s model, built around local market understanding rather than global assumptions, is designed for that kind of complexity.
The question is less about whether the transition is affordable but more about whether it is designed in a way that allows everyone to join for the ride.
By Rajvi Kothari, Group General Counsel & Chief Sustainability Officer, Inchcape plc
* A New Energy Vehicle (NEV) is a broad regulatory and industry term that groups together battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
[1] Source: https://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/promotion_ev/promotion_ev.html