Europe has been pretty slow to embrace the electric car trend that's ripping through the U.S. In a recent study, it looks like European drivers are finally ready to give electric-powered driving a whirl with the number of sales increasing by 38 percent in the first quarter of 2017. Last year, there was only a 2.9 percent increase for all of 2016. In the first quarter of 2016, there were 23,703 electric cars purchased in the EU, Norway, and Switzerland. The number is now up to 32,627 for the first three months of 2017.

Companies like Volkswagen and BMW are now quickly increasing the speed of manufacturing and are racing to expand their lineups to include more electric cars. While people have been very skeptical for a long time, governments in Europe have been promising large investments in charging technology in order to get people to buy these new vehicles. With the prices of electric cars decreasing and more charging stations being built, Europe can finally jump full force into electric vehicles.

Hopefully the numbers continue to rise and we're able to see a large worldwide decrease in electric car pricing. A lot of people have already made the switch, but the majority of drivers are still riding in gas-powered beasts. With any luck, the gap between the majority and minority will get smaller and smaller every year until eventually there will be more electric vehicles driving around the world.