// Almost 56 million electric cars on the roads world-wide in 2024 and still counting, as the market for electric vehicles sees continued growth but slowing momentum

The global count of electric cars at the end of 2024 was 55.8 million. More than half of these vehicles are registered in China, ahead of the USA in second place with 6.4 million electric cars and Germany in third place. Setting aside the Chinese figures, the highest growth rates were seen primarily in smaller markets like Canada with 44% or 254,700 vehicles and Denmark with 46% (154,200 vehicles).

With new registrations of electric cars standing at around 2.4 million in 2024, the EU is the second largest market in the world after China (11.3 million).  The USA ranks third with 1.6 million vehicles. While the boom continues in the Chinese market, growth in the other two markets is slowing significantly. China now accounts for almost two-thirds of the global electric car market.

Germany also saw a clear decline in momentum in 2024, with new registrations declining for the second year in a row. A market contraction of 16% in 2023 was followed last year by a further drop of 18% in the figures. A significant portion of the decline can likely be attributed to the abrupt end of the trade-in incentive for electric vehicles at the end of 2023. “A reliable general market framework and stable long-term infrastructure conditions are required for the development of electromobility and Norway is an impressive example of this, where 8 out of 10 newly registered vehicles last year were running on electric although subsidies are now only available in Norway for cheaper electric cars costing up to around 44,000 euro,” explained Andreas Püttner, project manager in the Systems Analysis department at the ZSW. Effective measures put in place in Norway in recent years have included exemption from import tax and value-added tax on the purchase of new electric vehicles, accompanied by other incentives like reduced toll charges and access to bus lanes. “The market for new cars in Germany is heavily dominated by company cars, therefore a two-pronged approach which might stabilise the market ramp-up would be to restrict the company car concession to electric vehicles only and to introduce CO₂ limits for company fleets. This might also stimulate the market for used cars in the medium term,” continued Püttner.

Despite the negative trend in the last two years, there are also positive signals from Germany where the German manufacturers are comparatively successful at international level in terms of cumulative sales figures, with VW, BMW and Mercedes all ranking among the top 10 manufacturers and with VW remaining in third place, having sold a total of over 4.3 million electric cars. Compared to the industry leaders BYD (China) and Tesla (USA), however, there is a large gap in terms of numbers, given that the Chinese company BYD has sold over 10 million electric cars worldwide to date and that Tesla can report sales of around 7.3 million vehicles. It is important not to be fooled, however, by the good position of German manufacturers in terms of aggregate numbers of new registrations around the globe. The sheer size of the Chinese market and the dominance of Chinese manufacturers there is clearing the way for more and more manufacturers, still relatively unknown in Europe, to push through into the global top 10. Figures for 2024 show that 6 out of 10 manufacturers of new vehicles registered around the world already come from China. The more familiar names like BYD, Geely and SAIC are being joined by lesser-known players like Changan, Li Xiang and Seres.

The high market shares taken by Chinese suppliers are also evident from the table of leading models where 8 out of 10 vehicles are of Chinese origin and, unlike the established manufacturers, Chinese suppliers are now covering the entire spectrum of vehicle segments. “The Chinese manufacturers are gaining ever larger shares of the market. In order to counteract this trend, the European manufacturers should act much more swiftly to appeal to a large customer base and cater for a much broader market, especially by offering cheaper electric models,” added Andreas Püttner.

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