That would be great but high % growth from a small base doesn't imply the same growth rate will continue once it reaches higher levels (see for example how undeveloped economies grow faster until they become developed, at which point growth slows down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence_(economics))
In general, what you’re saying about growth rates is true. However, there’s reason to believe that electric cars could grow at that pace
1. Regulation by governments. A few states and countries are mandating zero emissions (ie electric) vehicles by 2035.
2. Car manufacturer strategy. Since they know they can’t sell ICE vehicles past 2035 in some jurisdictions, it’s better to make the transition to electric quicker. Audi, for example, doesn’t plan to refresh its ICE vehicles past 2023. Even if you wanted to buy a new ICE Audi in 2025, you couldn’t.
3. Prices for consumers. The increase in manufacturing volumes of batteries will make them cheaper. They’ve dropped 20% per year over the last decade thanks to increased volumes. In a few years, the sticker price on electric vehicles will become lower without any subsidies. Their total cost of ownership is already lower. This will further increase growth.
4. Charging infrastructure. Currently the second biggest stumbling block (after sticker price). It’s not economically feasible to build charging networks or infra in apartment complexes when electric vehicles are niche. But as they grow in popularity, it becomes more viable, further increasing their popularity.
So yes, normally you can’t expect growth like this to last. But it possibly will because the attractiveness of electric cars increases in proportion to their popularity.
Per point 2, all of the German manufacturers now seem to have similar strategy dates. Many other European manufacturers are presumably paying attention as well. Even in the US, GM has signaled they've got their own relatively close date in mind where they expect it to happen, but for many reasons (including hostile US shareholders) have been keeping the specific date close to the chest. They are probably a bit more pessimistic in that date than the German automakers, but they've made it clear the horizon is coming (whether hostile US shareholders like it or not).
Interesting flipside corollaries to points 3 and 4: my opinion is I expect we may see something of a "singularity" slope in the transition sooner than I think a lot of people expect as ICE supply chains (which are quite complex webs) get disrupted and gas infrastructure goes away. Disruptions to the first may cause quick spikes in ICE vehicle costs and maintenance costs from increasing prices for consumers and decreasing supply of ICE-specific auto parts. As for the second issue, gas pumps are already seen as a high maintenance cost rarely profitable loss leader for grocery stores and convenience stores. How long do you think the pumps will be serviced/maintained/made available as demand drops? I certainly expect it might snowball surprisingly quickly whether or not overall oil costs remain at historic lows.
The worst time to own an electric car was when almost none were sold, with zero infrastructure.
Yeah, but we knew that when we bought a 2011 Leaf. But no one was going to build the infrastructure if no one bought electric cars, so... (And, fact is, we rarely charge it away from home, so charging infrastructure has been a thing a half dozen times in ten years.)
Ten years later, we look forward to the vast improvements in EVs when we eventually replace it.
gold trading volumes have doubled between 2018 and 2019.
It haven' t made it a replacement for fiat currencies in the following 2 years.
EVs are still too expensive for the majority of people that _need_ to buy a car and their growth will put pressure on the charging infrastructure, which is insufficient right now or inexistent in large areas all over the World, for example here in Italy outside of the 2-3 larger cities, owning a 100% EV is a luxury.
I'm also not sure production capacity can sustain that kind of growth in the near future.
In Europe regulations about emissions are driving up the EV sales for company fleets, but the overall car sales are going down. There are 40 million registered cars in Italy and in Q4 2020 only 8.5 thousands were new electric cars.
Going to be an interesting decade.