At the beginning of 2014, there were more than 400,000 electric cars—battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and range-extended electric vehicles—on the road worldwide, according to an analysis by Zentrums für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) in Germany. This represents a doubling from 2013, according to ZSW.

According to ZSW, the number of registered electric vehicles worldwide has increased at an annual rate of more than 100% over the last three years. At the beginning of 2012, nearly 100,000 of the cars were on the roads worldwide. This rose year later to a total of 200,000, and then to 405,000 units earlier this year.

ZSW projects that, given maintaing growth rates at the same level, there will be more than 1 million electric vehicles on the road by the beginning of 2016.

The tally does not include motorcycles, trucks, buses and the now more than 6-million conventional full-hybrid vehicles.

The US, Japan and China are leading the market, according to the analysis, followed by France, Holland, Norway and Germany. Japanese and US automotive groups are the leading providers, assisted by strong market incentive programs in countries. Nissan is the top-seller, followed by GM/Opel and Toyota; Tesla is accelerating rapidly. The batteries for the xEVs come mainly from Japan and South Korea, ZSW noted.