Global electric vehicle population reaches 2 million

8 June 2017

The number of electric cars on the roads around the world—including battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV)—reached 2 million in 2016, following a year of strong growth in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global EV Outlook.

More than 750,000 electric vehicles were sold globally in 2016. China remained the largest market, accounting for more than 40% of the electric cars sold in the world. China, the US and Europe made up the three main markets, totaling over 90% of all EVs sold around the world.

The electric car population has been growing fast since 2010, with a fairly consistent distribution of BEVs at 60% and PHEVs at 40%. In 2016, six countries reached more than 1% electric car market share: Norway (29%), the Netherlands (6.4%), Sweden (3.4%), France, the United Kingdom and China. China also operates more than 200 million electric two-wheelers and more than 300,000 electric buses, in addition to passenger vehicles.

Between 9 and 20 million electric car could be deployed by 2020, and between 40 and 70 million by 2025, according to IEA estimates.

Still, electric vehicles only made up 0.2% of total passenger light-duty vehicles in circulation in 2016, noted the IEA. They have a long way to go before reaching numbers capable of making a significant contribution to GHG emission reduction targets.

Source: IEA