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Despite challenges in key markets like the U.S., the global shift to battery-powered vehicles is moving along.
Last year, more than one in five new cars sold worldwide were either fully electric or a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV), per a new International Energy Agency report. This year, EVs and PHEVs will make up more than one-quarter of new car sales, IEA forecasts.
China, the world leader in EV and battery manufacturing, continues to also lead the way on EV adoption. A total of over 17 million fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold around the world last year — and more than 11 million of those were in China alone. PHEVs are growing particularly fast in China. The country saw nearly double the number of PHEVs hit the road in 2024 as it did in 2023. Almost half of all cars sold in China last year were EVs or PHEVs.
Europe is the next-biggest region for electric vehicle adoption, but it stagnated a bit last year. Roughly the same number of EVs and PHEVs were sold across the continent as in 2023. Growth has tapered off in large part because large European countries like France and Germany have phased out EV subsidies in recent years. Still, sales grew last year in over half of the European Union’s 27 member states — and they climbed significantly in the United Kingdom, the second-largest auto market in Europe.
The U.S. electric vehicle market saw modest growth in 2024. About 10% more EVs and PHEVs took to the road in the U.S. than in the year before, a marked slowdown from 2023’s growth rate but not a bad outcome given some of the apocalyptic forecasts from analysts. It’s notable that the sector saw growth despite Tesla, the dominant player in the U.S. EV landscape, recording a decline in sales.
EV sales in 2024 were also bolstered by emerging markets, where over 60% more EVs and PHEVs were sold than in 2023. India and Thailand are among the largest markets in this category, though they were far from the fastest growing — meanwhile, Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia all saw a rapid rise in EV sales.
The outlook for this year is solid. The IEA expects more than 20 million EVs and PHEVs to be sold worldwide as China keeps expanding its massive EV fleet. Sales in Europe could rebound a bit as new policies incentivizing EVs go into effect. EV adoption in emerging markets will continue to grow on the strength of increasingly affordable Chinese models.
The biggest question mark is the U.S., where tariffs, policy rollbacks, and the likely repeal of the consumer EV tax credit — and possibly manufacturing incentives, too — could seriously dampen adoption of electrified models. But even if the worst case for EV adoption unfolds in the U.S., it’s just one country. The rest of the world, meanwhile, will keep on moving toward EVs.
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