by Ed Maurer
The figures for EV sales for the last quarter of 2024 are finally available, and they are not encouraging. The total number of EV sales grew by an anemic 2,091 cars over 2023, or less than half a percentage point. In terms of market share, EVs remains stuck at 25%. Within the next 10 years, California’s goal is to increase this number to 100%, but with an annual increase of less than 0.5%, we’ll just about never get there. And that’s perfectly fine with the Trump administration.
Farther afield, EV sales continue to do quite well, as “global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose by 25% in 2024 to over 17 million cars
“Incentives and emission targets pushed EV sales in China and aided Britain in overtaking Germany as Europe's biggest battery-electric market in 2024, research firm Rho Motion said” (Reuters, January 14, 2025).
USA: In the final tally, EV sales rose 7.3% from 2023 numbers, according to Kelley Blue Book data. Sales growth has slowed – 2023’s figure was 49% higher than 2022’s. But sales have never stopped growing, and the percentage of new cars sold powered purely by gasoline continues to slip.
Europe: Although figures for 2024 are not yet available, the previous year saw good progress “in the uptake of electric cars and vans in all 27 EU Member States, where electric vehicles accounted for 22.7% of new car registrations and 7.7% of new van registrations. In total, 2.4 million new electric cars were registered in 2023, up from 2 million in 2022. Registrations of new battery electric cars grew by 37%, while the number of newly registered plug-in hybrid cars fell by almost 4%. In 2023, a total of 91,000 new electric vans were registered, most of which were battery electric” (EU Environment Agency).
It's also worth noting that the sale of new cars powered by internal combustion engines has been prohibited in Norway since January 1st, 2025.
China: “Sales of all types of electric vehicles rose more than 40% in China last year, while those of gasoline-powered automobiles plunged” (AP January 13, 2025). “25% of new car sales were 100% electric in 2024” (Clean Technica).