The rapid growth in electric car sales over the past 5 years has had a significant impact on the global car fleet: At the end of 2024, the electric car fleet had reached almost 58 million, about 4% of the total passenger car fleet and more than triple the total electric car fleet in 2021. Notably, the global stock of electric cars displaced over 1 million barrels per day of oil consumption in 2024. Of course, the stock of electric cars is not spread evenly across the world – in China, for example, around one in ten cars on the road is now electric, whereas in Europe the ratio is closer to one in twenty.
Almost half of China’s car sales were electric in 2024, representing almost two-thirds of electric cars sold globally
Electric car sales in China increased by almost 40% year-on-year in 2024, further driving up China’s share of global electric car sales. In 2021, China accounted for half of global electric car sales; this share grew to almost two-thirds in 2024. On a monthly basis, sales of electric cars have overtaken conventional car sales in the country since July 2024, bringing the share of electric car sales close to 50% for the full year. In China, 2024 marks the fourth consecutive year in which the electric car sales share grew by approximately 10 percentage points year-on-year.
The growth in China reflects in no small part the growing price competitiveness of battery electric cars with conventional cars in the country. In addition, China’s electric car market benefitted from the introduction of a trade-in scheme in April 2024. The scheme, which is part of a wider economic stimulus package, applies to the purchase of conventional and electric cars alike, but with different levels of financial support. It offers CNY 20 000 (Yuan renminbi) (USD 2 750) for consumers that replace an older vehicle (conventional or electric) with a new electric car, and CNY 15 000 (USD 2 050) for replacement with a new conventional vehicle. In 2024, about 6.6 million consumers applied for the incentive, 60% of whom bought an electric car. As such, more than one-third of the over 11 million new electric car sales in the country benefitted from this incentive.
In recent years, sales of plug-in hybrid electric cars have been growing faster than sales of battery electric cars in China. The share of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) sales, excluding extended-range EVs (EREVs)2, in China’s total electric car sales has risen from about 15% in 2020 to nearly 30% in 2024. Meanwhile, the share of EREVs has more than quadrupled since 2020, surpassing 10% in 2024. The acceleration of PHEV sales in China led the share of electric car sales that are battery electric to fall from 80% in 2020 to below 60% in 2024, though in absolute terms battery electric car sales increased sevenfold over the same period, demonstrating their continued appeal to new customers.
In Europe, electric car sales stagnated in 2024 as policy support waned in major car markets
About one in five new cars sold on the European market was electric in 2024, maintaining the sales share of the previous year. The electric sales share increased in 2024 in 14 out of 27 EU member states, while it either stalled or decreased in the rest, including in several larger markets, such as Germany and France, largely as a result of subsidies being phased out or reduced. In Germany, subsidies ceased at the end of 2023, while France has progressively reduced its subsidy over the years. At the start of 2024, France limited the amount of environmental bonus available to higher-income car buyers and reduced the number of vehicles eligible for the subsidy.
Besides subsidies, the policy design of the European Union CO2 standards may also have held back further growth of the electric car market in 2024. As new targets come into effect every 5 years, car makers had no incentive to push sales of electric cars further in 2024 (in anticipation of strengthened targets in 2025). This is in contrast to markets such as the United Kingdom, where annually increasing targets move original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) towards electrification each year. In March 2025, the European Commission published its Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector, in which it proposed to amend the CO2 emission performance standards for cars and vans, granting them additional flexibilities by averaging their performance over a 3-year period.
In the United Kingdom – the second-largest car market in Europe – electric car sales reached a share of nearly 30%, up from 24% in 2023. The year 2024 was the first under the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme, which required 22% of all new registrations to be BEV or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). When accounting for the scheme’s flexibilities, which allows OEMs to borrow credits from future years, they were able to comply with a battery electric car sales share of close to 20%. Norway reached near-total electrification of sales, with 88% of car sales being battery electric and just under 3% plug-in hybrid. As a result of the growing stock of electric cars, Norway’s oil consumption for road in 2024 decreased by 12% compared to 2021. From April 2025, a tax increase on conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and PHEVs is expected to further increase the battery electric share towards meeting the Norwegian government’s 2025 goal of 100% zero-emissions car sales. In Denmark, the electric sales share increased by 10 percentage points to reach 56%, with nearly 100 000 electric cars sold.
The market share of electric cars continued to expand in the United States
In the United States, electric car sales increased to 1.6 million in 2024, with the sales share growing to more than 10%. However, growth in electric car sales slowed down significantly in 2024, increasing by just 10% compared to 40% in 2023. In spite of this, electric car sales did boost the overall car market, as sales of conventional cars stagnated.
A total of 24 new electric car models were launched in 2024, increasing model availability by 15% compared to 2023, providing consumers with more choices and further increasing competition. While the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 have been the two best-selling models in the United States since 2020, the 110 new models that have entered the market since then have driven the market share of Tesla down from 60% in 2020 to 38% in 2024. Furthermore, 2024 was the first year in which Tesla saw a drop in sales in the United States, while other OEMs saw sales increase by 20% on aggregate.
A modification to the US Clean Vehicle Tax Credit at the start of 2024 enabled buyers to receive an instant discount (up to USD 7 500 for a new electric car and USD 4 000 for a used electric car) at the point of sale, which may have served to entice interested buyers. However, not all electric cars were eligible for the credit: in 2024 about 20 electric models (not accounting for different trim levels) out of a total 110 were eligible, which translated to over half of US electric car sales. The real share that benefitted from the tax credit may be even higher. In 2023, provisions were introduced on leased electric cars to reclassify them as commercial vehicles, thereby making them eligible for the tax credit without having to meet requirements on local manufacturing. As a result, by 2024, nearly half of all EVs sold were leased, more than double the share seen 3 years earlier. In addition to the federal tax credit, in 2024, 27 states offered additional incentives, rebates and exemptions promoting electric car adoption.
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