Low current
Global growth in electric cars is slowing down
Source:
| Translated by AI
In the world’s major electric car markets, more than 10 million purely battery-powered vehicles were sold in 2024, but that is less than usual…
(Image: E-Lios)
In the 21 markets relevant to electric car sales, which were examined by the consulting firm PWC, 10.4 million sales were recorded, as reported by the dpa. Although this is 14.3 percent more than a year ago, growth has significantly slowed. In 2023, an increase of 28 percent had been calculated. Last year’s figures have had to be drastically revised downwards, it further states. The main explanation for the delay is that PWC corrected its data collection method for China to prevent exported vehicles from being double-counted. However, the difference amounts to hundreds of thousands.
Germany falls off the podium
The dominant market for electric car sales is thus China, where nearly two-thirds of the volume—specifically 6.7 million pure electric vehicles (BEV)—end up. In terms of growth, China, with a good 20 percent, is well above the average (based on the corrected previous year’s figures). Following that are the USA with 1.2 million and an increase of 7.4 percent. Third place does not go to Germany this time, as the United Kingdom (UK) now occupies it with around 382,000 BEVs—about 21 percent more than the previous year. Germany now lands in fourth place. According to the analysis, this is due to the fact that the local electric car market collapsed by a good 27 percent to 381,000 cars following the removal of the purchase premium last year. In other European markets like France, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, or Sweden, sales of electric vehicles are also declining, though not as sharply as in Germany.
Mix of external factors disrupts electric vehicle sales
Currently, it is evident that the global electric car market continues to be heavily dependent on external factors. The strong electric car sales in China towards the end of the year can also be explained by a sort of scrappage bonus for purchasing electric vehicles. However, overall, Germany’s weakness is stalling the momentum of the entire EU market. It must also be admitted that there is a special effect in this country that at least partially explains the current predicament: because manufacturers must sell significantly more BEVs in 2025 to meet the tightened CO2 requirements, they have shifted BEV sales from last year to the current year. This could trigger a surge for pure electric and plug-in hybrids in 2025, with the latter already finding much stronger buyers than pure electric cars, as it further states. In this sector, sales increased by 56 percent to 6.2 million in the markets analyzed. For non-plug-in hybrids, growth was 18 percent (to 8.9 million cars sold).
