Electric car use by country varies worldwide, as the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles is affected by consumer demand, market prices, availability of charging infrastructure, and government policies, such as purchase incentives and long term regulatory signals (ZEV mandates, emissions regulations, fuel economy standards, and phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles).
Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are generally divided into all-electric or battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which run only on batteries, and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which combine battery power with internal combustion engines. The popularity of electric vehicles has been expanding rapidly due to government subsidies, improving charging infrastructure, their increasing range, lower battery costs, and environmental sensitivity.However, by 2025, electric cars represented about 5% of the global car stock. Electric car sales exceeded 20 million in 2025, up 20% from 2024, and accounted for 25% of global car sales.
Global cumulative sales of highway-legal light-duty plug-in electric vehicles reached 1 million units in September 2015, 5 million in December 2018, and passed the 10 million milestone in 2020. By mid-2022, there were over 20 million light-duty plug-in vehicles on the world's roads. Sales of plug-in passenger cars achieved a 9% global market share of new car sales in 2021, up from 4.6% in 2020, and 2.5% in 2019. "Global sales totaled 2,018,247 plug-in passenger cars in 2018, with a BEV:PHEV ratio of 69:31, and a market share of 2.1%. The world's top selling plug-in car was the Tesla Model 3, and Tesla was the top selling manufacturer of plug-in passenger cars in 2018". The PEV market has been shifting towards fully electric battery vehicles. The global ratio between BEVs and PHEVs went from 56:44 in 2012, to 60:40 in 2015, and rose to 74:26 in 2019. See Exhibit 1: Global electric-vehicle sales, 2010–17. The ratio was 71:29 in 2021.
, China had the largest stock of highway legal plug-in passenger cars with 20.4 million units, almost half of the global fleet in use. China also dominates the plug-in light commercial vehicle and electric bus deployment, with its stock reaching over 500,000 buses in 2019, 98% of the global stock, and 247,500 electric light commercial vehicles, 65% of the global fleet.
Europe had about 11.8 million plug-in passenger cars at the end of 2023, accounting for around 30% of the global stock. From the bar graph, the stock of plug-in cars totaled 7.8 million units, consisting of 3.4 million plug-in hybrids and 4.4 million all-electric cars. Select Historical: "EV stock" + Transport mode: "Cars" + Region" "Europe" Use interactive graphs for total registrations and market share by power source. Select option EU + EFTA + UK. EFTA countries include Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. A total of 3,006,311 plug-in electric passenger cars were sold in the region in 2023. The plug-in segmant market share was 23.4%, 15.7% BEV + 7.7% PHEV. Europe also has the world's second-largest stock of electric light commercial vehicles, with about 290,000 vans. , cumulative sales in the United States totaled 7.04 million plug-in cars since 2010, with California listed as the largest U.S. plug-in regional market with 1.77 million plug-in cars sold by 2023.
, Germany is the leading European country with 1.38 million plug-in cars registered since 2010. A total of 681,410 plug-in electric passenger cars were registered in Germany in 2021, consisting of 325,449 plug-in hybrids (12.4% market share) and 355,961 all-electric cars (13.6% market share). Norway has the highest market penetration per capita in the world, and also has the world's largest plug-in segment market share of new car sales, 86.2% in 2021. Over 10% of all passenger cars on Norwegian roads were plug-ins in October 2018, and rose to 22% in 2021. The Netherlands had the highest density of EV charging stations in the world by 2019.
History
The global stock of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) between 2005 and 2009 consisted exclusively of all-electric cars (BEV), totaling about 1,700 units in 2005, and almost 6,000 in 2009. The plug-in stock rose to about 12,500 units in 2010, of which 350 were plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). See pp. 4–5, and 24–25 and Statistical annex, pp. 34–37. By comparison, during the Golden Age of the electric car at the beginning of the 20th century, the EV stock peaked at approximately 30,000 vehicles. After the introduction of the Think City, Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt in late December 2010, the first mass-production plug-in electric cars by major manufacturers, plug-in sales grew to about 50,000 units in 2011, to 125,000 in 2012, and almost 213,000 cars and utility vans in 2013. Sales totaled over 315,000 units in 2014, up 48% from 2013. In March 2014, Norway became the first country where over 1 in every 100 passenger cars on the roads was a plug-in, and, by October 2018, 1 in every 10 passenger cars registered in Norway was a plug-in.
In five years, global sales of highway legal light-duty plug-in vehicles increased more than ten-fold, totaling more than 565,000 units in 2015—an 80% increase from 2014, driven mainly by China and Europe. About 775,000 plug-in electric cars and vans were sold in 2016, and 1.22 million in 2017—up 57% from 2016—with China accounting for about half of global sales. Sales of plug-in electric cars in China, including imports, totaled 600,174 units in 2017. The BAIC EC-Series was the top selling plug-in with 78,079 units sold in China, making the city car the world's top selling plug-in car in 2017. The top selling plug-in hybrid was the BYD Song PHEV with 30,920 units. BYD Auto was the top selling car manufacturer. Foreign brands captured only about 4% of plug-in sales in 2017, with about half by Tesla. The Chinese plug-in car market represented roughly half of the 1.2 million plug-ins sold worldwide in 2017. "Global sales totaled 1,224,103 plug-in cars in 2017, with a market share of over 1%." The global market share of the new light-duty plug-in segment reached 1.3% in 2017, up from 0.86% in 2016, and 0.38% in 2014. Global light-duty plug-in vehicle sales passed the 3 million milestone in November 2017 and 5 million at the end 2018. Global sales totaled 2,018,247 plug-in passenger cars in 2018, up 72% from 2017, with a market share of 2.1%. The BEV:PHEV ratio rose to 69:31 in 2018 and to 74:26 in 2019. By the end of 2019 the stock of light-duty plug-in vehicles totaled about 7.5 million units. At the end of 2019 the global fleet of plug-ins was 7,5 million, counting light vehicles. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles add another 700 000 units to the global stock of plug-ins. Worldwide sales in 2019 rose to 2,209,831 units with a global market share of 2.5%. The combined number of PEV and hybrid cars sold in the European Union hit a record in July 2020, accounting for 18% of the total number of passenger cars sold. It also was the first time that more than 200,000 electric cars were sold in a single month.