Electric cars went from a niche product to a large share of the market in about five years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) tracks the shift in its annual Global EV Outlook. The 2026 edition, presented in May 2026, reports that electric cars made up a quarter of new car sales in 2025 and are forecast to reach 28 percent in 2026.
How fast has the electric share grown?
The IEA slides give three data points for the share of new car sales that are electric.
- 2020: 4 percent
- 2025: 25 percent
- 2026 (forecast): 28 percent
By our own arithmetic, that is a rise of more than six times in five years. Some media reports described the 2026 forecast as nearly 30 percent. We use the 28 percent figure shown in the IEA slides, and we note that the two are close but not identical.
What does the IEA expect by 2035?
The IEA presents two scenarios. Under current policies, electric cars reach about 46 percent of global car sales by 2035. Under stated policies, which include announced government targets, the share is about 53 percent. The IEA’s own summary says electric cars would reach about half of global car sales by 2035 under existing policies. Sales of conventional cars with an internal combustion engine peaked in 2017, according to the slides. Forecasts are scenarios and not predictions, and the gap between the two shows how much depends on policy.
Where are electric car sales growing?
More than 100 countries grew their electric car sales in 2025, and about one-third of those markets reached at least a 10 percent electric share. Southeast Asia is a prominent example. EV sales there more than doubled in 2025 and rose 80 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2026. More than half of those sales are affordable imports from China, despite rising trade restrictions.
What role does China play?
Chinese car exports doubled to a record high in 2025, and electric vehicles made up more than 35 percent of China’s car exports. Chinese imports supplied 55 percent of EV sales outside Europe and the United States. For background on the country, see our entry on China. These figures describe trade flows, and the slides do not attribute the pattern to a single cause. Battery prices fell, driven by scale and battery technology innovation in China, according to the IEA, but the slides give no readable price values.
What about electric trucks?
The slides report 441,000 electric trucks sold globally in 2025, and global electric truck sales more than doubled. Roughly one in four trucks sold in China in 2025 was electric.
- China: 91 percent of 2025 electric truck sales
- North America: 5 percent
- Europe: 4 percent
The electric share of truck sales in China rose from 6 percent in 2023 to 15 percent in 2024 and 26 percent in 2025, a pace that the IEA treats as notable for a heavy vehicle segment.
What is changing inside the car?
The final slides look at software and autonomy. More than 90 percent of automakers are committed to zonal architectures, a way of organizing a car’s electronics by location instead of by function. All models with zonal architecture are battery electric, and so are all robotaxis. EVs sold in 2025 were about twice as likely as conventional and hybrid vehicles to be partially automated, and autonomous-driving chips are about five times more powerful than in 2020. The first commercial vehicle-to-grid tariffs, which let a parked car supply power to the grid, offer free home charging.
What does this mean for emissions and the grid?
The slides we used do not quantify emissions or electricity demand, so we leave those figures out. Readers can see how transport fits into the wider emissions picture in our report on global CO2 emissions, and how new electricity demand is changing in our article on data centers and electricity. For the technology itself, our entry on the electric vehicle explains the basics.
How to read the IEA’s numbers
Three cautions apply. First, the slides are a presentation, and several charts have no readable labels, so we report only figures stated in text. Second, the IEA’s definition of an electric car in its usual reporting includes plug-in hybrids as well as fully battery electric cars, a general fact that we have not verified in this deck. Third, a share of sales is not a share of cars on the road, since the existing fleet turns over slowly.
Key figures at a glance
- Electric share of new car sales: 4 percent in 2020, 25 percent in 2025, 28 percent forecast for 2026
- Countries growing EV sales in 2025: more than 100
- Electric trucks sold in 2025: 441,000
- Southeast Asia EV sales in Q1 2026: up 80 percent year on year
- Chinese imports share of EV sales outside Europe and the US: 55 percent
Glossary: terms used here
- Electric car: a passenger car that uses grid electricity for propulsion, with the exact definition set by the IEA in its full reports
- Internal combustion engine (ICE): an engine that burns fuel inside cylinders, used in conventional cars
- Current policies and stated policies: two IEA scenarios, one based on policies already in force and one that adds announced government targets
- Zonal architecture: a design that groups a vehicle’s electronics by physical zone and connects them to central computers
- Vehicle-to-grid (V2G): technology that lets a parked electric vehicle send electricity back to the grid
- Robotaxi: a driverless vehicle that provides ride-hailing service
These definitions are general ones and are not quoted from the IEA slides. An electric motor replaces the engine in these cars, and the choice between scenarios is what drives the range of 2035 outcomes.
Frequently asked questions
What share of new cars are electric?
25 percent in 2025, with 28 percent forecast for 2026, according to the IEA.
When will electric cars reach half of sales?
Around 2035 under existing policies, according to the IEA’s scenarios.
How many electric trucks were sold?
441,000 in 2025, more than double the year before.
Which region is growing fastest?
The slides highlight Southeast Asia, where Q1 2026 sales rose 80 percent year on year.