1 in 4 new cars sold in 2025 was electric ⚡

Our World in Data has crunched the latest IEA figures and the headline is hard to ignore: globally, one in every four new cars sold in 2025 was electric.

That’s not a niche trend playing out in Scandinavia. It’s a worldwide shift. In the EU, one in four cars sold were electric. In China, more than half of all new cars sold are now EVs. In Nepal and Ethiopia, its as high as two out of every three. Even markets that were slow to get started are catching up fast, with EV sales more than doubling globally between 2022 and 2025.

This trend is not just playing out with passenger vehicles. One heavy truck in four sold in China in 2025 was electric. In the UK, 75% of all new city buses have electric powertrains. In Europe, more than half of new city bus registrations are electric with several nations have already reached 100% market share, specifically Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia.

The combustion engine has already peaked 🏁

Here’s the bit that really makes you think. According to the same data, global sales of petrol and diesel cars didn’t just slow down — they actually peaked back in 2017. We didn’t quite realise it at the time, but that was the high-water mark for the internal combustion engine. Since then, despite a growing global population and rising car ownership overall, combustion engine sales have been on a steady decline. The engine that powered motoring for over a century has already had its best days.

Taken together, these two charts from Our World in Data tell a pretty compelling story: the transition to electric isn’t a future event – it’s already well underway.

📊 Sources: Our World in Data

🔗 https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/one-in-four-cars-sold-in-2025-was-electric

🔗 https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/global-sales-of-combustion-engine-cars-peaked-in-2017