Bloomberg News - Electric cars seen becoming mass-market in Europe by 2022

European carmakers and parts manufacturers estimate that electric vehicles will emerge from their niche status and become mass-market products by 2022, according to a study by Ernst & Young. The greatest hurdle for the cars' acceptance is the perception that their range is too limited, the consulting firm said in the 2011 European Automotive Survey of 307 managers at automakers and suppliers across the region. "A breakthrough would be when there are at least 100,000 electric vehicles on the road in Germany, which is when you'd really notice them," Peter Fuss, Ernst & Young's automotive sector leader for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, told journalists at a pres-entation in Frankfurt. "But we saw in the music industry how long it took for CDs to take over from records." There were 2,307 electric cars on German roads as of Jan. 1.