The market continues to be dominated by China, where the sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in 2023 went up by 37% to 9 million units, reaching 34% in the sales of new passenger cars. Rystad Energy expects sales in China to rise to 11.5 million units in 2024, with their share climbing to 44%. China will also account for over two-thirds of electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid sales (this share was 69% in December 2023).
Europe remains an important growth point for the industry, even despite the recent abolition of subsidies for the purchase of electric cars in Germany. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), sales of electric vehicles in the EU increased by 37% (to 1.5 million units) in 2023, with their share in the sales of new passenger cars reaching 14.6% (versus 12.1% in 2022). Although the sales of plug-in hybrids in the EU at the end of last year went down by 7% (to just over 800,000 units), they continued to retain a significant market share (7.7% versus 9.4% in 2022).
Electric vehicle market growth is also observed in the United States: according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the overall share of electric vehicles and hybrids (including those that do not get charged from the common grid) rose from 12.9% in 2022 to 16.3% in 2023. California remains the leading region in terms of demand, including due to the highly developed charging infrastructure. By November 2023, there were 173,600 charging stations in the U.S., of which 48,700 stations (28%) were based in California alone.
The top five regions for charging stations also include New York (6%), Florida (6%), Texas (5%) and Massachusetts (4%). The development of charging infrastructure is already having a significant impact on power consumption: according to the EIA, the share of electric cars and hybrids in U.S. power demand went up from 0.04% in 2018 to 0.17% in the first nine months of 2023.
As for manufacturers of electric vehicles, China’s BYD continues to be the sales leader with 942,000 electric cars sold in the fourth quarter of 2023, almost twice as many as Tesla (484,500 units).
