BOULDER, CO – According to a new report from Pike Research, sales of stop-start vehicles will grow rapidly in the coming decade, rising from 3 million units in 2011 to 37.3 million units per year by 2020.

By the end of the decade, the report projected, a total of 186 million vehicles globally will incorporate the technology, which will become standard on the majority of vehicles sold in Europe as well as on dozens of models in North America and Asia.

Though automotive stop-start technology is virtually unknown in North America today, the benefits it provides in terms of fuel economy and emission reductions make the shift toward such vehicles inevitable, researchers asserted. Stop-start systems enable gasoline engines to turn off when vehicles are slowed down or stopped. Driven by efforts to meet mandated reductions of greenhouse gases, automakers have introduced stop-start vehicles (SSVs) over the past decade under a variety of names, including micro-hybrids and idle-stop vehicles, and a number of brands released by the manufacturers.

These vehicles offer 5- to 10-percent reductions in both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. They require more robust batteries and starter systems than are found in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and they are priced at a small premium over ICEs. Moreover, they are considerably less expensive than hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), according to the report.

“By 2020, stop-start vehicles will represent more than one-third of all light-duty vehicle sales,” said research director John Gartner. “SSVs are already outselling hybrids globally by a factor of  3.5 to 1, and that gap will widen to a 16 to 1 ratio by 2017 because of the lower cost of SSVs compared to HEVs.”

The stop-start capability of hybrids has enjoyed popularity with consumers because of the quieting of the engine while stopped at an intersection as well as the increased fuel economy. Automakers see eliminating engine idling through stop-start technology as a low-cost, highly beneficial investment, the report said.

Due to stringent emissions regulations, the largest SSV market for the forecast period will be Western Europe, which will represent 98 percent of the 3 million SSVs sold in 2011, according to the report. By 2020, Western Europe will account for 42 percent of all SSVs sold, researchers projected. The fastest-growing region for SSV sales will be North America, where annual sales will roughly double each year from 2011 through 2020. More than two dozen SSV models were available in Western Europe as of early 2011. But in the United States, only three SSV models are for sale.

Pike Research’s report, titled “Stop-Start Vehicles,” analyzes opportunities and challenges in the emerging market for stop-start vehicles.  A summary of the report is available for free download here. 

Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm specializing in global clean technology markets.