EV Sales by Country 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-authors: Aidan Jad (Energy & Infrastructure) | Last updated: September 11, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
More than 20 million electric cars were sold worldwide in 2025, and China accounted for about six in ten of them, according to the IEA. But ranked by how fast the switch is actually happening, Axis Intelligence Research finds that seven emerging markets — led by Viet Nam — now outpace China, while the United States sits near the bottom.
Quick Answer
China is the world’s largest EV market by volume: more than 13 million electric cars in 2025, or about 60% of global sales (IEA Global EV Outlook 2026). Europe followed with about 4.2 million, and the United States with around 1.5 million. In 2026 the three markets are diverging: China’s NEV share of retail sales hit 57.0% for January–August (Axis calculation from CPCA data), the EU’s plug-in share reached 30.5% in H1 (Axis calculation from ACEA), and the US battery-electric share sat at about 5.8% in Q2 (Cox Automotive).
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research’s EV Breakout Index (EVBI) ranks Viet Nam first among 15 major EV markets for 2025, with a score of 64.0 out of 100, ahead of Uruguay (58.0) and Türkiye (52.0).
- China ranks eighth on the EVBI at 39.3, behind seven emerging or mid-size markets, because its 2025 NEV retail growth slowed to 17.3%, per Axis Intelligence Research calculations from CPCA data.
- China’s NEV retail penetration reached 57.0% in January–August 2026 even though NEV retail volumes fell 12.1%, because total car retail fell faster (−20.8%), Axis Intelligence Research finds from CPCA data.
- About 3.08 million Chinese NEVs, 31.6% of January–August 2026 wholesale volume, left factories without a matching domestic retail sale, according to Axis Intelligence Research analysis of CPCA wholesale and retail series.
- The US battery-electric share of new-vehicle sales fell 45.3% from its Q3 2025 peak of 10.6% to about 5.8% in Q2 2026, Axis Intelligence Research calculates from Kelley Blue Book data.
Which Countries Sell the Most Electric Cars?
Three markets still account for most of the world’s electric car sales. The IEA puts global 2025 sales above 20 million, with electric cars at 25% of all new cars sold and growth of about 20% year on year. Everything outside China, Europe and the US added up to nearly 2 million.
EV sales by country and region, 2025
| Rank | Market | 2025 EV sales (BEV + PHEV) | EV share of new car sales | 2025 growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | More than 13 million | Almost 55% | Under 20% (CPCA retail basis: 17.3%) | IEA; CPCA |
| 2 | Europe (total) | About 4.2 million | About 28% | More than 30% | IEA |
| — | European Union | Almost 3 million | Just under 27% | — | IEA |
| 3 | United States | Around 1.5 million | Around 10% | Slightly lower than 2024 | IEA |
| 4 | Germany | 850,000 | Around 30% | About 50% | IEA |
| 5 | Türkiye | Nearly 240,000 | More than 20% | More than doubled | IEA |
| 6 | South Korea | More than 200,000 | 11% | Around 65% | IEA |
| 7 | Brazil | 180,000 | 9% | — | IEA |
| 8 | India | 165,000 | Nearly 4% | 75% | IEA |
| 9 | Thailand | Roughly 140,000 | Nearly 25% | 70% | IEA |
| 10 | Japan | Just above 100,000 | Less than 3% | Flat | IEA |
The United Kingdom and France are not ranked by volume here because the IEA reports their 2025 shares (over one in three and around 25%) but not a comparable sales total. Source: IEA, Global EV Outlook 2026.
China sold more electric cars in 2025 than the rest of the world combined, and the gap is not closing on volume. The more interesting number is further down the table. Germany grew half again in a single year, Türkiye more than doubled, and Thailand now electrifies nearly a quarter of its new-car market — more than double the US share in the same year.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: Volume rankings answer the question manufacturers care about: where are the units? They say much less about where the grid, the charging network and the used-car market will feel pressure next. A market selling 140,000 EVs at 25% share is further through the transition than one selling 1.5 million at 10%, and its planners should be budgeting accordingly.
Which Countries Have the Highest EV Market Share?
Market share is where the ranking flips. Norway remains the global benchmark at about 97% of new car sales in 2025, nearly all battery-electric. Viet Nam, at nearly 40%, now sits above most European countries. China follows at almost 55%.
EV share of new car sales by country, 2025
| Country | EV share of new car sales (2025) | Qualifier | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norway | 97% | About | IEA |
| China | 55% | Almost | IEA |
| Viet Nam | 40% | Nearly | IEA |
| United Kingdom | 33% | More than one in three | IEA |
| Germany | 30% | Around | IEA |
| Uruguay | 30% | Nearly | IEA |
| Thailand | 25% | Nearly | IEA |
| France | 25% | Around | IEA |
| Türkiye | 20% | More than | IEA |
| Costa Rica | 17% | — | IEA |
| Indonesia | 15% | — | IEA |
| Australia | 15% | Around | IEA |
| South Korea | 11% | — | IEA |
| Canada | 11% | — | IEA |
| United States | 10% | Around | IEA |
| Philippines | 10% | Almost | IEA |
| Brazil | 9% | — | IEA |
| Uzbekistan | 8% | — | IEA |
| Mexico | 7% | More than | IEA |
| Malaysia | 7% | About | IEA |
| India | 4% | Nearly | IEA |
| Chile | 4% | Roughly | IEA |
| Japan | 3% | Less than | IEA |
About 40 countries now sell electric cars at 10% of new sales or higher, and the IEA notes that more than half of the 2 million EVs sold outside the three majors went to markets in Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East that have crossed that 10% mark.
For a full breakdown of how buyers in these markets are adopting EVs — ownership, purchase intent and barriers — see our EV adoption statistics.
The EV Breakout Index (EVBI): Where Is the Switch Happening Fastest?
Volume tells you where the cars are. Share tells you how far a market has gone. Neither tells you which markets are breaking out right now. That is what Axis Intelligence Research built the EV Breakout Index (EVBI) to measure.
What EVBI measures: how deep and how fast a country’s shift to electric cars is, on a single 0–100 scale.
Formula:
EVBI = (0.6 × EV share of new car sales, %) + (0.4 × EV sales growth year on year, %, capped at 100 and floored at 0)
- Share (60% weight) captures how far the market has already moved.
- Growth (40% weight) captures the direction and speed.
- The 100% growth cap stops small-base markets from dominating the index on percentages alone. It also means any market the IEA describes as having “more than doubled” scores the same 100 on growth — so no false precision enters the calculation.
- Declines score zero on growth, not negative, so a shrinking market is ranked on share alone.
All inputs come from the IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 except China, where Axis Intelligence Research used CPCA’s monthly retail series to compute an exact growth rate (17.3%) and penetration (54.0%) instead of the IEA’s “under 20%” and “almost 55%.”
EV Breakout Index (EVBI) rankings, 2025
| EVBI rank | Country | EV share (input) | Growth (input, capped) | EVBI score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viet Nam | 40 | 100 (more than doubled) | 64.0 |
| 2 | Uruguay | 30 | 100 (more than doubled) | 58.0 |
| 3 | Türkiye | 20 | 100 (more than doubled) | 52.0 |
| 4 | Indonesia | 15 | 100 (more than doubled) | 49.0 |
| 5 | Mexico | 7 | 100 (tripled) | 44.2 |
| 5 | Malaysia | 7 | 100 (doubled) | 44.2 |
| 7 | Thailand | 25 | 70 | 43.0 |
| 8 | China | 54.0 | 17.3 | 39.3 |
| 9 | Germany | 30 | 50 | 38.0 |
| 10 | South Korea | 11 | 65 | 32.6 |
| 11 | India | 4 | 75 | 32.4 |
| 12 | United Kingdom | 33 | 25 | 29.8 |
| 13 | Canada | 11 | 0 (declined) | 6.6 |
| 14 | United States | 10 | 0 (declined) | 6.0 |
| 15 | Japan | 3 | 0 (flat) | 1.8 |
Source: Axis Intelligence Research, EV Breakout Index (EVBI), 2025 reading, computed September 11, 2026 from IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 and CPCA data. UK and Türkiye inputs are IEA floor values (“more than”); Japan’s share is an IEA ceiling (“less than”), so Japan’s score is an upper bound. Markets are included only where the IEA publishes both a share and a growth figure — which is why Norway, France and Brazil are absent.
Reading the index. Four of the top five are markets where the IEA links growth directly to cheaper imported Chinese models and targeted tax treatment. Viet Nam is the exception: its domestic maker VinFast captured nearly the entire market with small, low-priced models. China lands eighth not because it is weak — it has the second-highest share in the table — but because a 54% market cannot grow 100% a year. That is the point of the index: it separates markets that have arrived from markets that are arriving.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: The bottom of the table matters as much as the top. Canada, the US and Japan each score below 7, and each for a different reason: a rebate programme that ended, federal tax credits that ended, and an industry that bet on hybrids. Three G7 markets, three policy stories, one result — the switch stopped accelerating.
This is the baseline reading of the EVBI. The next reading will use 2026 full-year data when the IEA and national statistics bodies publish it.
How Many EVs Has China Sold in 2026?
China’s passenger NEV retail sales totalled 6.674 million from January to August 2026, down 12.1% year on year, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Over the same eight months, total passenger car retail fell 20.8% to 11.716 million.
Put those together and the headline looks contradictory: fewer EVs sold, yet a record share. Axis Intelligence Research calculates January–August NEV retail penetration at 57.0% (6.674 ÷ 11.716). In August alone, CPCA reported 65.2%.
China NEV retail penetration by month, 2026
| Month (2026) | NEV share of passenger car retail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| January | 38.6% | CPCA |
| February | 44.9% | CPCA |
| March | 51.5% | CPCA |
| April | 61.4% | CPCA |
| May | 62.9% | CPCA |
| June | 62.8% | CPCA |
| July | 65.1% | CPCA |
| August | 65.2% | CPCA |
CPCA monthly data as published by CnEVPost on September 8, 2026.
The share is rising because gasoline cars are collapsing faster than EVs are slipping. The IEA flags the policy trigger: from January 2026, China’s full NEV purchase-tax exemption was replaced with a 50% reduction linked to energy consumption and electric range, and trade-in subsidies moved to price-capped formulas.
Where did China’s 2026 EV production go?
Here is the number the monthly headlines skip. CPCA’s wholesale series (factory shipments, including exports) totals 9.745 million NEVs for January–August 2026, against 6.670 million domestic retail sales on the same monthly-sum basis.
Axis Intelligence Research calculation: 9.745M wholesale − 6.670M retail = 3.075 million NEVs (31.6% of wholesale) shipped from factories without a matching domestic retail sale over eight months.
Most of that gap is exports: CPCA reported 518,000 NEV exports in August alone, 58.4% of all passenger car exports. The remainder is dealer and in-transit inventory, which CPCA’s public series does not separate. We cover the destination split and export dynamics in depth in our China EV export statistics, and China’s fleet, charging and 2030 targets in our China EV statistics.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: When a third of your factory output isn’t being bought at home, the question stops being “how big is China’s EV market?” and becomes “whose EV market is China supplying?” The EVBI top five answers that question: Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia and Thailand all run on Chinese-built cars.
How Are EV Sales in Europe Doing in 2026?
Europe is the fastest-growing of the three major markets. The IEA reports 2025 European electric car sales rose more than 30% to about 4.2 million, a 28% share, driven by the step change in EU CO₂ standards that took effect in 2025.
2026 has kept that pace. In the first half of the year, ACEA counted 1,220,890 new battery-electric car registrations in the EU (20.7% share, up from 15.6% a year earlier) and 577,735 plug-in hybrids (9.8%).
Axis Intelligence Research calculation: 1,220,890 + 577,735 = 1,798,625 plug-in cars in H1 2026, a 30.5% combined share of EU registrations.
EU new car registrations by powertrain, H1 2026
| Powertrain | H1 2026 share | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid-electric (non-plug-in) | 37.3% | ACEA |
| Battery-electric | 20.7% | ACEA |
| Plug-in hybrid | 9.8% | ACEA |
| Petrol + diesel combined | 29.7% | ACEA |
Europe’s largest EV markets
| Country | Latest data point | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 850,000 EV sales, ~30% share, +50% | 2025 | IEA |
| Germany | BEV registrations +48% | H1 2026 | ACEA |
| France | BEV registrations +62.9% | H1 2026 | ACEA |
| Denmark | BEV registrations +41.2% | H1 2026 | ACEA |
| United Kingdom | BEV share 25.6% of new cars | Jan–Aug 2026 | SMMT |
| Norway | ~97% EV share | 2025 | IEA |
| Türkiye | Nearly 240,000 EV sales, 4th-largest in Europe | 2025 | IEA |
| Italy / Spain / Poland | EV sales +65% / +80% / +125% | 2025 | IEA |
The United Kingdom recorded a 25.6% battery-electric share for January–August 2026, according to SMMT registration data — below the 33% headline ZEV mandate target, though mandate flexibilities lower the effective threshold.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: Look at the EU table again: petrol and diesel together are now under 30% of registrations. The combustion-engine car didn’t lose Europe to the EV. It lost it to the hybrid first. That matters for charging planners, because a 37% self-charging hybrid share adds zero kWh of plug-in demand.
Why Did US EV Sales Fall in 2026?
US EV sales fell because federal support ended. The IEA documents the sequence: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act terminated new and used clean vehicle tax credits after September 2025, and Q4 2025 electric car sales dropped 45% year on year. For 2025 as a whole, the US sold around 1.5 million electric cars at roughly 10% share.
2026 data from Kelley Blue Book show a market that has stabilized at a lower level. Cox Automotive estimates 247,226 EVs sold in Q2 2026 — down 20.5% year on year, an improvement on Q1’s 27.3% decline. EVs held about 5.8% of new-vehicle sales, against the record 10.6% in Q3 2025.
Axis Intelligence Research calculation: 5.8 ÷ 10.6 − 1 = a 45.3% relative drop in US EV share from peak to Q2 2026.
US EV sales, 2025–2026
| Metric | Value | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| EV sales (BEV + PHEV) | Around 1.5 million | 2025 | IEA |
| EV share of car sales | Around 10% | 2025 | IEA |
| EV sales change, Q4 | −45% YoY | Q4 2025 | IEA |
| EV share (BEV), peak | 10.6% | Q3 2025 | Cox Automotive / KBB |
| EV sales (BEV) | 247,226 | Q2 2026 | Cox Automotive / KBB |
| EV sales change | −20.5% YoY | Q2 2026 | Cox Automotive / KBB |
| EV share (BEV) | ~5.8% | Q2 2026 | Cox Automotive / KBB |
Note: IEA figures include plug-in hybrids; Kelley Blue Book “EV” counts are battery-electric only. The two series should not be subtracted from each other.
Canada moved the same direction: the IEA reports 2025 EV sales down more than 30% after the iZEV rebate ended, with share falling from nearly 17% to 11%. Mexico went the other way — sales tripled to more than 7% share, 85% of them imported from China — though new 50% tariffs on cars from non-FTA countries took effect January 1, 2026.
Emerging Markets: Where Are EV Sales Growing Fastest?
Emerging and developing economies outside China bought almost 1.2 million electric cars in 2025, up around 80%, according to the IEA. Around 60% of those cars were imported from China. In Q1 2026, Asia Pacific outside China grew 80% and Latin America 75%, while global sales dipped 8%.
EV sales in emerging markets by region, 2025
| Region | 2025 EV sales | Growth | Key markets | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southeast Asia | More than 500,000 | More than doubled | Viet Nam (~40% share), Thailand (~140,000), Indonesia (15%) | IEA |
| Latin America | More than 350,000 | +75% | Brazil (180,000), Mexico (tripled), Uruguay (13,500) | IEA |
| India | 165,000 | +75% | Tata and Mahindra ~60% of sales | IEA |
| Middle East | Around 75,000 | More than +40% | UAE ~50% of regional sales; BYD ~60% brand share | IEA |
| Eurasia | More than 60,000 | — | Uzbekistan ~half of region, 8% share | IEA |
| Africa | About 25,000 | — | Egypt 7,900 · Morocco 5,500 · South Africa 3,800 | IEA |
Africa’s figure deserves a caution flag the IEA itself raises: around 60% of annual car-stock additions on the continent are imported used vehicles, so new-car sales data understate how many EVs are actually arriving.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: Southeast Asia sold more EVs in 2025 than the Middle East, Africa and Eurasia combined — several times over. And Thailand’s BYD Dolphin list price fell from about THB 700,000 to roughly THB 640,000 once production moved from China to Thai plants, per the IEA. Localisation isn’t just industrial policy there. It shows up on the window sticker.
What Will EV Sales Be by the End of 2026?
The IEA expects global electric car sales to reach about 23 million in 2026, or 28% of all car sales, with Europe the strongest-growing major market. The first quarter started 8% down year on year at about 3.9 million, mainly because of China and the US.
What would change the picture: a faster-than-expected recovery in Chinese retail during the traditional September–October peak season, which CPCA has flagged; any reinstatement of US federal incentives; and whether the tariff walls going up in Mexico, Türkiye and Southeast Asia slow the imported-car growth that powers the top of the EVBI.
Methodology
Collection. Axis Intelligence Research fetched every figure in this article from source documents between September 10 and 11, 2026: the IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 (trends chapter and executive summary), ACEA’s H1 2026 registrations release, CPCA’s August 2026 passenger car data (as published by CnEVPost), Cox Automotive’s Q2 2026 EV sales commentary, and SMMT’s August 2026 registrations. Each figure sits as a row in the downloadable CSV with its URL and retrieval date.
Definitions differ by source, and we keep them separate. The IEA counts battery-electric plus plug-in hybrid cars (including extended-range). CPCA’s “NEV” adds EREVs and fuel-cell vehicles to that. ACEA and SMMT report registrations by powertrain. Kelley Blue Book’s US “EV” figure is battery-electric only. Axis Intelligence Research never combines figures across these definitions into a single number.
Axis calculations. China 2025 growth and penetration are sums of CPCA monthly retail figures (12,782,052 NEVs ÷ 23,678,576 cars = 54.0%; 12,782,052 ÷ 10,895,252 − 1 = 17.3%). The China wholesale–retail gap uses monthly sums on both sides; because CPCA publishes monthly values rounded to the thousand, the retail monthly sum (6.670M) differs slightly from CPCA’s reported YTD total (6.674M). EU plug-in share is ACEA’s BEV plus PHEV shares. US peak-to-current decline divides two Kelley Blue Book share estimates.
EVBI construction. Share and growth inputs are taken exactly as the IEA states them. Where the IEA uses qualitative language, “more than doubled,” “doubled” and “tripled” all map to the 100-point growth cap; “more than X%” is entered as X (a floor); “less than X%” is entered as X (a ceiling). The 60/40 weighting prioritises how far a market has moved while still rewarding speed. Markets missing either input are excluded rather than estimated.
What the data can’t show. China’s zero-mileage used-car exports, which the IEA estimates at roughly 4% of electric car sales, are counted as new sales in Chinese statistics.
About This Dataset
The file ev-sales-by-country.csv contains 175 rows: 2025 EV sales, shares and growth for more than 40 countries and regions; China’s 2026 monthly NEV penetration; EU H1 2026 registrations by powertrain; US quarterly EV sales; and all 15 EVBI scores with their formula inputs. Every row carries source_org, source_document, source_url, retrieved_date, is_primary, axis_calculated and, for calculated rows, a method_note. A qualifier column preserves the source’s own wording (“about,” “more than,” “less than”).
License: CC BY 4.0. Free to use, including commercially, with attribution to Axis Intelligence Research.
Cite This Page
APA: Axis Intelligence Research & Jad, A. (2026). EV sales by country 2026: China, Europe, the US and the breakout markets nobody is ranking. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/ev-sales-by-country/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research, and Aidan Jad. “EV Sales by Country 2026: China, Europe, the US and the Breakout Markets Nobody Is Ranking.” Axis Intelligence, 11 Sept. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/ev-sales-by-country/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Aidan Jad. “EV Sales by Country 2026: China, Europe, the US and the Breakout Markets Nobody Is Ranking.” Axis Intelligence, September 11, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/ev-sales-by-country/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is China’s EV share rising if its EV sales are falling?
Because the rest of China’s car market is shrinking faster. CPCA data show NEV retail sales fell 12.1% in January–August 2026, while total passenger car retail fell 20.8%. The result, per Axis Intelligence Research, is a 57.0% NEV share — a record built on collapsing gasoline demand, not surging EV demand.
Which country sells the most electric cars per new car?
Norway. About 97% of new cars sold there in 2025 were electric, nearly all battery-electric, according to the IEA. Outside Europe, Viet Nam leads at nearly 40%, driven by VinFast’s low-priced small models.
Is Europe or the US the bigger EV market in 2026?
Europe, by a wide margin. The EU alone registered 1,798,625 plug-in cars in H1 2026 (Axis calculation from ACEA). The US sold 247,226 battery-electric vehicles in Q2 2026 per Kelley Blue Book, at about 5.8% share versus the EU’s 30.5% plug-in share.
Do plug-in hybrids count in EV sales figures?
It depends on the source. The IEA and CPCA include plug-in hybrids (CPCA also includes extended-range EVs). Kelley Blue Book’s US “EV” figures are battery-electric only. ACEA and SMMT publish each powertrain separately. Always check the definition before comparing two countries.
Which emerging market is the next big EV market?
On the Axis Intelligence Research EV Breakout Index, Viet Nam, Uruguay, Türkiye and Indonesia score highest. By volume, Southeast Asia as a region sold more than 500,000 electric cars in 2025, more than doubling, according to the IEA.
How many of the EVs sold in emerging markets are made in China?
About 60% of electric car sales in emerging and developing economies outside China were imports from China in 2025, per the IEA. In individual markets it runs higher: 85% in Mexico and just under 85% in Brazil.
Where do the EVs China builds but doesn’t sell at home end up?
Mostly abroad. Axis Intelligence Research calculates a 3.075 million-unit gap between CPCA’s NEV wholesale and retail totals for January–August 2026. CPCA reported 518,000 NEV exports in August alone; the rest of the gap is inventory that CPCA’s public data don’t break out.
Why did Canada’s EV sales drop in 2025?
The iZEV federal rebate — up to CAD 5,000 for eligible battery-electric cars — ended at the start of 2025. The IEA reports Canadian electric car sales fell more than 30%, and share dropped from nearly 17% to 11%.