Overview
- The International Energy Agency reported this week that about 20.7 million plug‑in vehicles were sold in 2025, equal to roughly one quarter of new car sales and bringing the global electrified fleet to about 5 percent.
- China accounted for the bulk of that growth, capturing roughly 55–60 percent of global plug‑in sales in 2025 and exporting a record near 2.5 million EVs that year, with exports jumping about 40 percent in April 2026 compared with a year earlier.
- U.S. sales weakened as federal purchase incentives ended, producing a pull‑forward surge before a drop to about 1.8 million plug‑in vehicles in 2025 and leaving the U.S. plug‑in share well below the global average.
- Emerging markets saw an about 80 percent leap in plug‑in sales in 2025, driven mainly by lower‑priced models from Chinese manufacturers that rapidly increased adoption in countries such as Mexico, Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.
- The shift is intensifying price and model concentration, with five models taking roughly 20 percent of sales, and it raises near‑term pressures on charging networks, grid planning and trade policy as forecasts point to more growth in 2026.