EV market skyrockets: Global electric car sales double in record time
Anyone who thought the hype surrounding EVs was cooling down is vastly mistaken. A quick look at the electric cars on the roads makes one thing abundantly clear: EV sales are absolutely skyrocketing worldwide, hitting historic milestones along the way. In a remarkably short period, the entire EV market has expanded, with sales figures doubling in record time. This development impressively proves that the transition away from pure internal combustion engines is completely irreversible.
A deeper look into the data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) illustrates the sheer scale of this shift. Last year, around 21 million BEVs and plug-in hybrids were newly deployed onto roads globally. This is a massive leap compared to 2022, when the threshold of 10 million electric cars was crossed for the first time. In plain terms, this means that every fourth new car around the globe now runs on electricity instead of fuel.
Consequently, the global market share of pure EVs and plug-ins stands at 25 percent. For context, looking back to 2018, this share was a meager 2 percent. The undisputed leader in this EV rally is clearly China. The Asian country is mercilessly leaving the rest of the markets behind. Of the aforementioned 21 million EVs, a whopping 13 million were sold in the Chinese domestic market alone.
As a result, the Middle Kingdom accounts for roughly 60 percent of global new EV registrations. And they are keeping the pedal to the metal. In April 2026, electric vehicles already made up over 60 percent of all passenger car sales there. Local automakers are aggressively pushing into the market with fiercely competitive prices. Paired with an extremely dense charging infrastructure, switching to an electric car has become incredibly easy for buyers in China.
However, plenty is happening outside of China as well. Approximately 8 million EVs were sold across the rest of the world, with Europe and the US setting the tone. The European market, in particular, is highly receptive to battery-powered drivetrains. In the first quarter of 2026, sales here saw an increase of nearly 30 percent, allowing EVs to capture 28 percent of all new registrations.
Experts firmly expect that by the end of 2026, one in three new cars across Europe will be a BEV or a plug-in hybrid. Increasingly strict fleet CO2 regulations are forcing automakers into this rapid transition anyway. Even in countries where e-mobility previously played a minor role, numbers are now noticeably picking up. In Latin America, EV registrations surged by 75 percent.
In Southeast Asia, electric car sales actually doubled within just twelve months. For the current year of 2026, analysts project global sales of over 23 million electric cars. Thus, the EV fleet continues to grow relentlessly. Current forecasts even suggest that around 55 million electric vehicles could be sold by 2035. The "EV effect" on the global oil market is immense: by 2030, this massive influx of BEVs could save around 5 million barrels of crude oil every single day.
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