According to a new report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), global EV sales will surpass 20 million in 2025, accounting for more than a quarter of cars sold worldwide. In the first three months of 2025, electric car sales worldwide were up 35 percent over the previous year. And, adds the IEA, market share is on course to exceed 40 percent by 2030 as EVs—smaller, cheaper ones, mainly—become increasingly affordable in more markets.
Almost half of all car sales in China last year were electric. Emerging markets in Asia and Latin America have also become new centers of growth, with total EV sales across these regions surging by more than 60 percent in 2024, according to the IEA. Meanwhile, EV sales grew by about 10 percent year-on-year in the US.
“Our data shows that, despite significant uncertainties, electric cars remain on a strong growth trajectory globally,” says IEA executive director Fatih Birol. “Sales continue to set new records, with major implications for the international auto industry. This year, we expect more than one in four cars sold worldwide to be electric, with growth accelerating in many emerging economies. By the end of this decade, it is set to be more than two in five.”
China, which accounts for more than 70 percent of global EV production, shipped nearly 1.25 million electric cars to other countries last year. The ending of EV subsidies in the EU has impacted European sales. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the EU’s EV market share in 2024 fell to 13.6 percent, down 1 percent from the prior year.
Volkswagen’s luxury marques, including Porsche, Bentley, and Lamborghini, are reassessing their EV strategies. Porsche has scaled back plans for an all-electric lineup following a 49 percent decline in Taycan sales. Bentley has pushed back the launch of its first EV from this year to next, and extended its gas-engine phase-out deadline to 2035. Lamborghini has delayed its Lanzador EV until 2029 at the earliest.
Wait a few months and you might well be able to pick up a G580 for considerably less than its $162,000 list price. You can currently bag a three-year-old Porsche Taycan, with its 416 miles of range, for less than half what it cost new. Currently, there are 930 used Taycans for sale in the US on Auto Trader, with prices ranging from just $44,000 when a base model costs at least $100,000 new. A Taycan with just 11,000 miles on the clock can be had for $47,000.
US and European car makers—legacy and startups—may wish there was high demand for premium-priced prestige EVs (Jaguar is staking its future business on this), but for some years now the market has been crying out, instead, for cheaper, entry-level models. The favored method by the modern auto industry of filling flagships with their best wares then letting these slowly trickle down to lower-tier cars is not realistic right now, says Dale Harrow, chair and director of the Intelligent Mobility Design Center at London’s Royal College of Art.
“The same tech is basically in all electric vehicles,” says Harrow. “So, for the first time, there’s no real guarantee that spending a lot more money is going to buy a better product. Look at the vehicles coming in from BYD.”
Instead, Harrow feels automakers must wean themselves off flagship-first dependancy, ape Ford’s classic Model T strategy, and concentrate on building EVs accessible to the masses through a combination of affordability, simplicity, and mass production. And guess who has already worked this out? Yep, China—where nearly 40 percent of all electric models are priced under $25,000.
It is this strategy, rather than gimmicky tank-turns, that will drive real adoption and encourage the spread of viable charging networks. After all, it was the ubiquity of the Model T that played a pivotal role in the development of gas stations—and there’s absolutely no reason why that same trick can’t be turned for the electric age.
