The fast development in electrical automotive gross sales over the previous 5 years has had a major impression on the worldwide automotive fleet: On the finish of 2024, the electrical automotive fleet had reached nearly 58 million, about 4% of the entire passenger automotive fleet and greater than triple the entire electrical automotive fleet in 2021. Notably, the worldwide inventory of electrical vehicles displaced over 1 million barrels per day of oil consumption in 2024. After all, the inventory of electrical vehicles just isn’t unfold evenly the world over – in China, for instance, round one in ten vehicles on the street is now electrical, whereas in Europe the ratio is nearer to at least one in twenty.
Nearly half of China’s automotive gross sales had been electrical in 2024, representing nearly two-thirds of electrical vehicles offered globally
Electrical automotive gross sales in China elevated by nearly 40% year-on-year in 2024, additional driving up China’s share of world electrical automotive gross sales. In 2021, China accounted for half of world electrical automotive gross sales; this share grew to nearly two-thirds in 2024. On a month-to-month foundation, gross sales of electrical vehicles have overtaken standard automotive gross sales within the nation since July 2024, bringing the share of electrical automotive gross sales near 50% for the complete 12 months. In China, 2024 marks the fourth consecutive 12 months by which the electrical automotive gross sales share grew by roughly 10 proportion factors year-on-year.
The expansion in China displays in no small half the rising value competitiveness of battery electrical vehicles with standard vehicles within the nation. As well as, China’s electrical automotive market benefitted from the introduction of a trade-in scheme in April 2024. The scheme, which is a part of a wider financial stimulus package deal, applies to the acquisition of standard and electrical vehicles alike, however with completely different ranges of monetary assist. It affords CNY 20 000 (Yuan renminbi) (USD 2 750) for shoppers that exchange an older automobile (standard or electrical) with a brand new electrical automotive, and CNY 15 000 (USD 2 050) for alternative with a brand new standard automobile. In 2024, about 6.6 million shoppers utilized for the motivation, 60% of whom purchased an electrical automotive. As such, greater than one-third of the over 11 million new electrical automotive gross sales within the nation benefitted from this incentive.
Lately, gross sales of plug-in hybrid electrical vehicles have been rising quicker than gross sales of battery electrical vehicles in China. The share of plug-in hybrid electrical automobile (PHEV) gross sales, excluding extended-range EVs (EREVs)2, in China’s whole electrical automotive gross sales has risen from about 15% in 2020 to almost 30% in 2024. In the meantime, the share of EREVs has greater than quadrupled since 2020, surpassing 10% in 2024. The acceleration of PHEV gross sales in China led the share of electrical automotive gross sales which are battery electrical to fall from 80% in 2020 to under 60% in 2024, although in absolute phrases battery electrical automotive gross sales elevated sevenfold over the identical interval, demonstrating their continued enchantment to new prospects.
In Europe, electrical automotive gross sales stagnated in 2024 as coverage assist waned in main automotive markets
About one in 5 new vehicles offered on the European market was electrical in 2024, sustaining the gross sales share of the earlier 12 months. The electrical gross sales share elevated in 2024 in 14 out of 27 EU member states, whereas it both stalled or decreased in the remaining, together with in a number of bigger markets, resembling Germany and France, largely on account of subsidies being phased out or decreased. In Germany, subsidies ceased on the finish of 2023, whereas France has progressively decreased its subsidy through the years. Initially of 2024, France restricted the quantity of environmental bonus obtainable to higher-income automotive consumers and decreased the variety of autos eligible for the subsidy.
In addition to subsidies, the coverage design of the European Union CO2 requirements may have held again additional development of the electrical automotive market in 2024. As new targets come into impact each 5 years, automotive makers had no incentive to push gross sales of electrical vehicles additional in 2024 (in anticipation of strengthened targets in 2025). That is in distinction to markets such because the United Kingdom, the place yearly growing targets transfer authentic tools producers (OEMs) in direction of electrification every year. In March 2025, the European Fee printed its Industrial Motion Plan for the European automotive sector, by which it proposed to amend the CO2 emission efficiency requirements for vehicles and vans, granting them extra flexibilities by averaging their efficiency over a 3-year interval.
Within the United Kingdom – the second-largest automotive market in Europe – electrical automotive gross sales reached a share of almost 30%, up from 24% in 2023. The 12 months 2024 was the primary underneath the Car Emissions Buying and selling Scheme, which required 22% of all new registrations to be BEV or gas cell electrical automobile (FCEV). When accounting for the scheme’s flexibilities, which permits OEMs to borrow credit from future years, they had been in a position to adjust to a battery electrical automotive gross sales share of shut to twenty%. Norway reached near-total electrification of gross sales, with 88% of automotive gross sales being battery electrical and just below 3% plug-in hybrid. On account of the rising inventory of electrical vehicles, Norway’s oil consumption for street in 2024 decreased by 12% in comparison with 2021. From April 2025, a tax improve on standard inside combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and PHEVs is predicted to additional improve the battery electrical share in direction of assembly the Norwegian authorities’s 2025 objective of 100% zero-emissions automotive gross sales. In Denmark, the electrical gross sales share elevated by 10 proportion factors to succeed in 56%, with almost 100 000 electrical vehicles offered.
The market share of electrical vehicles continued to increase within the United States
Within the United States, electrical automotive gross sales elevated to 1.6 million in 2024, with the gross sales share rising to greater than 10%. Nevertheless, development in electrical automotive gross sales slowed down considerably in 2024, growing by simply 10% in comparison with 40% in 2023. Despite this, electrical automotive gross sales did increase the general automotive market, as gross sales of standard vehicles stagnated.
A complete of 24 new electrical automotive fashions had been launched in 2024, growing mannequin availability by 15% in comparison with 2023, offering shoppers with extra decisions and additional growing competitors. Whereas the Tesla Mannequin Y and Mannequin 3 have been the 2 best-selling fashions within the United States since 2020, the 110 new fashions which have entered the market since then have pushed the market share of Tesla down from 60% in 2020 to 38% in 2024. Moreover, 2024 was the primary 12 months by which Tesla noticed a drop in gross sales within the United States, whereas different OEMs noticed gross sales improve by 20% on mixture.
A modification to the US Clear Car Tax Credit score in the beginning of 2024 enabled consumers to obtain an prompt low cost (as much as USD 7 500 for a brand new electrical automotive and USD 4 000 for a used electrical automotive) on the level of sale, which can have served to entice consumers. Nevertheless, not all electrical vehicles had been eligible for the credit score: in 2024 about 20 electrical fashions (not accounting for various trim ranges) out of a complete 110 had been eligible, which translated to over half of US electrical automotive gross sales. The true share that benefitted from the tax credit score could also be even larger. In 2023, provisions had been launched on leased electrical vehicles to reclassify them as business autos, thereby making them eligible for the tax credit score with out having to fulfill necessities on native manufacturing. In consequence, by 2024, almost half of all EVs offered had been leased, greater than double the share seen 3 years earlier. Along with the federal tax credit score, in 2024, 27 states supplied extra incentives, rebates and exemptions selling electrical automotive adoption.
