By the end of 2025, the global fleet of electric cars will amount to 74.3 million vehicles. Around 60 per cent, or around 44 million, of these EVs are regis-tered in China, while the USA takes second place with 7.1 million electric cars, ahead of Germany with 3.2 million vehicles. With the exception of the Chinese market (+40 per cent), the highest growth rates in the portfolio were achieved by smaller markets such as Spain with 50 per cent (+232,200 vehi-cles) and Denmark with 42 per cent (+206,600 vehicles).
The global electric vehicle market is increasingly dominated by China: Even though almost all markets recorded partially significant growth, China now ac-counts for two thirds of the 21.4 million new registrations, totalling 14.2 million vehicles. Moreover, almost every second newly registered car there is an electric vehicle. Chinese manufacturers dominate the domestic market, while manufacturers from other countries are only represented to a very limited ex-tent. In the USA, however, new registrations were down slightly due to the ex-piry of tax credits for the purchase or leasing of electric vehicles in September 2025. Developments in Europe are encouraging: After stagnating in the previ-ous year, new registrations rose significantly to around three million electric vehicles in 2025. This means that the EU has once again secured second place in the vehicle market behind China. These two markets are also the largest growth drivers for electromobility.
Following on from two weaker years, momentum has also picked up signifi-cantly in Germany: The market for new registrations expanded by 50 per cent and reached a record high of 856,500 electric vehicles for the first time since 2022. The reasons for this include declining vehicle prices - also due to higher manufacturer discounts - in the past year, as well as a broader selection of vehicles. By international comparison, this development must now be further accelerated, given that only around one in three newly registered cars in Ger-many is electrically powered. The situation is quite different in the northern European countries: In Denmark and Sweden, two thirds of all new vehicles are electric cars, while in Norway the rate exceeds 97 per cent. In Norway, one in three cars in the vehicle fleet is already electric, whereas in Germany the share of electric cars in the total number of cars stands at just over six per cent.
Electric vehicles lessen our dependence on fossil fuel prices
"The developments in fuel prices in recent weeks clearly show that countries with a high percentage of electric vehicles are more resilient than countries with a low share. Owners of electric cars are not dependent on fossil fuels and are therefore better protected against extreme price spikes, which can ease social and economic burdens in times of crisis," says Andreas Püttner, project manager in the Systems Analysis department at ZSW. "An accelerated ex-pansion of renewable energies for electric vehicles not only reduces depend-ency on price fluctuations of fossil fuels, but also intensifies climate protection in the transport sector."
German manufacturers: Position maintained in international competition
In addition to dynamic market developments, there are further positive signals from Germany: German manufacturers performed comparatively well at inter-national level in terms of cumulative sales figures: VW, BMW and Mercedes are all ranking in the global top 10 manufacturers of electric vehicles. The Volkswagen Group remains in third place with over 5.7 million electric vehi-cles sold. However, compared to the industry leader BYD from China, which has further extended its lead over second-placed Tesla (USA), there is a growing gap in terms of numbers: BYD has sold over 15 million electric cars worldwide to date – which is around three times as many as VW. In addition to the domestic market, the company is also increasingly focussing on inter-national markets, which is escalating the competitive situation for established manufacturers there. Added to this is the emergence of many still relatively unknown vehicle manufacturers from China, such as Li Xiang or Chery Auto-mobile, in global markets.
German manufacturers, however, were also able to hold their competitive po-sition in terms of new registrations worldwide in 2025. VW once again achieved fourth place with over 1.4 million electric vehicles sold - an increase of 39 per cent compared to the previous year. BMW sold almost 650,000 elec-tric vehicles, positioning the company in seventh place. BYD, however, also dominates first place in this category with almost 4.5 million vehicles sold. The Chinese company Geely, which also owns Volvo, showed the strongest growth in the top ten. With over 1.8 million new registrations, Geely displaced Tesla in third place (1.7 million).
Company cars: CO2 fleet limit value could bolster German manufacturers
"German manufacturers should capitalise on their successes and position themselves even more strongly in the direction of electromobility," as Andreas Püttner states. "In the face of a globally shrinking market volume for vehicles with combustion engines, value creation and prosperity can be preserved in this way. The introduction of binding CO2 fleet limits for company cars could provide an important impetus for strengthening growth momentum in Ger-many and the EU. German manufacturers in particular could benefit from this, as company cars represent a particularly significant sales segment for them in their domestic market." According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, company cars will account for around two thirds of all new car registrations in Germany in 2025. And this is precisely why greater electrification of the com-pany car segment would also boost the used car market for electric vehicles, as ZSW expert Andreas Püttner argues.
Chinese manufacturers dominate the top ten e-vehicle models
In concluding, let's take a look at the individual vehicle models sold globally: The extent of the competition from China is also evident here. Tesla stands at the top of the ranking in terms of global cumulative new registrations with its Model Y and Model 3 models. VW also remains in the top ten with the ID.4. The remaining vehicles in the top ten, however, all come from China.
There are no European models in the top ten global new registrations in 2025 and eight of the ten vehicle models come from Chinese manufacturers. Geely was particularly successful with the EX2, which took fifth place with 479,000 vehicles sold.
Further data on electric mobility are available at: www.zsw-bw.de/mediathek/datenservice.html
Information on data collection
Why are plug-in hybrids included in the statistics?
In addition to purely battery electric vehicles (BEV), the ZSW also includes vehicles with plug-in hybrid drives (PHEV) and with range extenders (REEV) in the data analy-sis, as these vehicles are defined as electric vehicles according to official statistics, e.g. in Germany and the EU, but also by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
What types of vehicles are categorised as electric vehicles?
In addition to conventional passenger cars, the ZSW also includes light commercial ve-hicles (LCVs) weighing in at less than 3.5 tonnes. This also includes, for example, de-livery or trade vehicles.
How many new registrations were recorded for passenger cars with pure battery drive (BEV)?
BEVs will account for around 70 per cent of new registrations worldwide in 2025. Around two thirds of the global fleet are BEVs and one third PHEVs or REEVs.