Global EV Sales Trends

By Simon Johns - Jan 05, 2024

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Through COVID, conflicts and chip shortages, global EV sales trends have followed an upward path. Battery EVs and plug-in hybrids and gaining more and more market share in new vehicle registrations. Even as the market heads toward becoming mature in key territories China, Europe and the United States, here’s plenty of room left for conventional engine vehicles as well as hybrids and all other new energy vehicles.

2023

Even as the global light vehicle market slows, EV sales (BEVs and plugin hybrids) are likely to exceed 14 million units in 2023, accounting for growth of 34% over 2022, according to online EV data provider EV Volumes. Expectations are that EVs could reach global market share of 16% when the 2023 numbers are crunched.

Registrations of EVs have cooled off in line with ICEs, and market watchers are adjusting predictions downward world wide. A combination of subsidies and incentives drawing to a close in Europe and economic instability in the United States and China are taking the heat out of what has been a hot market for the past two years.

China as usual leads the pack when it comes not only to sales but now Chinese EV maker BYD sold more units than Tesla to become the number one EV maker in the world, according to Reuters. The country’s drivers bought more than 8 million EVs in 2023, upwards of 3 million were produced by BYD. Europe nudged toward sales of 3 million units, of which 2 million were BEVs, while the U.S. bought 2 million, split 50-50 between battery and hybrid.

2022

Another bumper year, especially for Tesla. 2022 closed on global deliveries of 10.5 million EVs (BEVs and PHEVs), an increase of 55% compared with 2021. EVs took 13% of global light vehicle sales in 2022, compared with 8.3% the year before.

The overall vehicle market and component shortages kept sales down compared with stellar growth in the previous two years. Even so, one in four cars sold in China was an EV in 2022. Sales of 6.9 million units bucked against a crashing real estate sector – one of the country’s major economic drivers – and more COVID 19 outbreaks. This translates into sales up by 82%. BYD and Tesla take the lion’s share.

Europe accounted for 1.13 million units, up 15% on 2021. Norway has long been the market share leader with BEVs 71% and PHEV 8%. North America saw growth of 48%, year on year, reaching 918,500 units.

The fastest-growing EV markets were in the East, with Indonesia from 1,000 to 10,000 units almost overnight, India up 223 % to 50,000 units and New Zealand up 151% to 23,000 units.

2021

While the world was confined to quarters, somebody was buying an electric vehicle. But after a year of economic chaos and lockdowns, global EV sales trends carried on regardless. Registrations reached 6.75 million units by the end of the year, an immense 108% increase on the year before, according to EV Volumes. But the figures are less impressive when we factor in an ongoing slump in conventional vehicle sales.

China’s population would rather have bought an EV over taking the bus to work, which saw sales rocket by more than 2 million units. Growth in Europe stayed lower

Consistent, high growth also among the remaining countries: South Korea increased by 64 200 units to 114 500 EV sales. Israel, Australia, India, Japan contributed with additional sales of more than 10 000 units each. Many smaller EV markets e.g. Brazil, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore increased EV sales by over 200 %. Most OEMs have noticeably enhanced their EV offers beyond Europe, China and North America.

New registrations of EVs in Europe reached 878,092, while conventional vehicle sales faltered. In the U.S., sales nearly doubled to 608,000 units.

2020

Despite the ruinous start to 2020 for sales of EVs of all kinds, there are now more than 7.5 million plug-in four-wheelers in the world. Most are still in China and the car that has outsold all others, even in the depths of the pandemic freeze, was the Tesla Model 3, which sold more than the next five models combined. Global plug-in sales passed 2.97 million units, capturing a market share of 2.7% of registrations.

China reached EV market share of 4.3%, up from 4% the year before, selling 1.27 million units. Europe as a whole crept up to 3.8% market share and Europeans registered almost 536,200 units. The U.S. saw the highest market share of plug-in sales during that period of 5.5%, with registrations amounting to 308,000 units.

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