Energy · Electric Vehicles

Global EV Sales

From a niche curiosity to over 20 million per year: the transport revolution in numbers.

• ~2,800× growth in 15 years
• Doubling time: 15 months → 3.8 years
• EVs crossed 25% of new-car sales
• Policy, not price parity, drove 2020

Annual global electric vehicle sales have grown from 7,400 in 2010 to 21 million in 2025, a roughly 2,800× expansion in 15 years. The shape has three parts. Adoption crawled through 2019 on enthusiasts and policy subsidies, went near-vertical from 2020, and has been decelerating steadily since 2022 as the market matures. Sales more than doubled in 2021, added about 40% in 2023 and grew 20% in 2025. That last figure is the source’s own: IEA puts 2025 growth at 20%, while dividing the plotted points, which are published rounded to two significant figures, would give a spurious 24%. Still fast compounding, but no longer vertical, and at IEA’s rate the doubling time has stretched from about 15 months to nearer 3.8 years. Policy turned the corner in 2020, not a purchase-price crossover: EU fleet CO2 standards, COVID-era green stimulus and China’s NEV mandate all landed together. Falling battery costs had set the stage — packs were about $137/kWh in 2020 — but BloombergNEF puts genuine sticker parity with combustion cars nearer $80 to $100/kWh, a level only reached around 2025. EVs crossed 25% of global new-car sales for the first time in 2025, and China accounts for about six in ten of them.

Source: IEA Global EV Outlook

Download the data: ev_sales.csv · ev_sales.json

All curves · The chart is drawn in your browser and needs JavaScript. Every number it plots is in the table above.