Increasing Usage of Electric Vehicles Fueling Demand for Electric Motors in Asia-Pacific

The governments of various APAC countries such as India and China are introducing sales targets for electric vehicles and offering financial incentives and subsidies on the purchase of these vehicles. For example, in 2017, the Chinese government started offering subsidies of more than $10,000 per vehicle. This pushed up the sales of electric vehicles in the country by more than 42% from 2016. Furthermore, Beijing implemented a policy in 2018 aimed at capping the number of car plates issued every month to almost 100,000. Electric vehicles were exempted from this policy and as a result, their sales grew massively in the city during that year.

Additionally, the escalating pollution levels and the rising need for energy conservation in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are pushing up the requirement for lower energy consumption, especially by high power-consuming industries. This is another key driver for the APAC electric motor market, as such devices account for nearly 70% of the total power consumption in a manufacturing plant. The operation of compressors and electric motors together account for the highest consumption of power in a manufacturing facility.

Many industries are adopting energy-efficient electric motors in large numbers for reducing the overall energy consumption and mitigating the operating costs. Besides this, in many industries, motor-driven electric vehicles are increasingly being used for curbing the soaring power consumption levels. Since an electric motor is a critical component of an electric vehicle, the ballooning usage of motor-driven electric vehicles is boosting the sales of electric motors in the APAC region.

The most widely used types of electric motors in the region are DC motors, hermetic motors, and AC motors. Till now, AC motors have witnessed the widest sales on account of the rising demand for EVs and industrial machinery. AC motors are preferred in such sectors because of their high power output and lower maintenance requirements. Amongst these, the sales of hermetic motors will rise rapidly in the region in the future, because of the growing usage of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment in the construction industry.

According to the estimates of the market research firm, P&S Intelligence, the APAC electric motor market would exhibit the fastest growth in India in the coming years. This is credited to the presence of a flourishing manufacturing and construction industry in the country. The country’s domestic manufacturing improved massively after the launch of the Make in India initiative in 2014 and the trend will continue in the coming years, thereby boosting the demand for electric motors in the country.

Moreover, the manufacturing sector in the APAC region is installing a large number of energy-efficient electric motors to reduce the requirement for power, in the face of the increasing pollution levels. Electric motors account for nearly 70% of the total energy consumption in factories, which is why the need to make them energy-efficient is rather strong presently. Compressors consume the highest amount of energy in any industrial unit, and approximately half of all that energy is used up by electric motors. In an effort to curb this issue and curtail their operational cost, industrial plants are opting for more energy-efficient electric motors.

Apart from manufacturing and automotive, electric motors are also used in the construction industry, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, agriculture sector, household appliances, and consumer electronics industry. These end users deploy alternate current (AC), hermetic, and direct current (DC) motors, as per their requirement. Of the different types of motors, the adoption of hermetic motors is expected to surge in the construction sector and HVAC equipment. In this regard, the rapid replacement of older HVAC products with new ones will fuel the demand for hermetic motors in the coming years.

The output power segment of the APAC electric motor market is bifurcated into fractional horsepower (FHP) and integral horsepower (IHP). In 2017, the FHP bifurcation held the larger market share due to the increasing demand for FHP electric motors in low-power applications of HVAC equipment, household appliances, several aerospace and transportation components, and motor vehicles, excluding traction motors. On the other hand, the IHP category is projected to display the faster growth in the forecast period, on account of the surging use of high-power motors in EVs (traction motors) and industrial machinery.

Among the APAC nations, China utilized the highest number of electric motors in the past due to the extensive support from its government to make it a major manufacturing hub by 2025. The upcoming industrial plants will use an ample number of electric motors in their machinery. Besides, the surging demand for EVs on account of the provision of a 50% subsidy on them by the government has led to the widescale adoption of electric motors in the country.

During the forecast period, India will witness the fastest growth in the APAC electric motor market due to the booming construction and manufacturing sectors in the country. This growth is facilitated by favorable government initiatives, such as the Make in India program, which aim to make India a global manufacturing hub. Besides, the growth in the real estate sector is expected to stimulate the market growth in the forecast period. In the same way, the rising production of EVs, locomotives, and trainsets will drive the electric motor market of India.

Thus, it can be said with full confidence that the sales of electric motors would shoot-up all over the APAC region in the forthcoming years, primarily because of the growing requirement for these motors in the manufacturing plants and construction activities and the rising deployment of electric vehicles in the region.