Global sales of electric cars set to grow 35% this year

Electric car sales worldwide are set to grow by 35% this year to reach 14 million and expand their share of the overall car market to 18%, driven by strong support programs in major economies, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday.

The IEA’s annual Global Electric Vehicle Outlook report showed that more than 10 million electric cars were sold worldwide in 2022, a record increase of 55% compared to the previous year.

The explosive growth brought electric cars’ share of the overall car market to 14% last year from 9% in 2021 and 4% in 2020.

The total number of electric cars on the roads reached 26 million after last year’s record surge.

“Electric vehicles are one of the driving forces in the new global energy economy that is rapidly emerging and they are bringing about a historic transformation of the car manufacturing industry worldwide,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on the report.

“The trends we are witnessing have significant implications for global oil demand. The internal combustion engine has gone unrivalled for over a century, but electric vehicles are changing the status quo. By 2030, they will avoid the need for at least 5 million barrels a day of oil. Cars are just the first wave: electric buses and trucks will follow soon.”

Data shows the majority of electric car sales to date are concentrated in China, Europe and the US.

China accounted for about 60% of global electric car sales last year and also accounted for over 50% of all the electric cars on the world’s roads, with a total of 13.8 million.

“This strong growth results from more than a decade of sustained policy support for early adopters, including an extension of purchase incentives initially planned for phase-out in 2020 to the end of 2022 due to COVID-19, in addition to non-financial support such as rapid roll-out of charging infrastructure and stringent registration policies for non-electric cars,” the IEA said in the report.

The share of electric car sales in China’s total domestic car sales reached 29% last year, up from 16% in 2021.

Europe and US account for 35% of new electric car sales

Europe remained the world’s second largest electric car market after China, accounting for 25% of all electric car sales in 2022 and 30% of the global stock.

The continent last year saw an increase of 15% in electric cars sales, reaching 2.7 million. The sales share of electric cars rose to 21% last year from 18% in 2021.

Germany was the biggest market in Europe with 830,000 new electric car registrations in 2022, followed by the UK with 370,000 and France with 330,000. Spain registered over 80,000 new electric cars.