Sales of electric cars reached another record high in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain challenges, including semiconductor chip shortages. Looking back, about 120 000 electric cars were sold worldwide in 2012. In 2021, that many were sold in a week.

EV markets are expanding quickly. Electric car sales accounted for 9% of the global car market in 2021 – four-times their market share in 2019. All the net growth in global car sales in 2021 came from electric cars. Sales were highest in China, where they tripled relative to 2020 to 3.3 million after several years of relative stagnation, and in Europe, where they increased by two-thirds year-on-year to 2.3 million. Together, China and Europe accounted for more than 85% of global electric car sales in 2021, followed by the United States (10%), where they more than doubled from 2020 to reach 630 000.

Global electric car stock, 2010-2021

Electric vehicles are the key technology to decarbonise road transport, a sector that accounts for 16% of global emissions.

Compared with 2020, sales nearly doubled to 6.6 million (a sales share of nearly 9%), bringing the total number of electric cars on the road to 16.5 million. The sales share of electric cars increased by 4 percentage points in 2021. Getting on track with the Net Zero Scenario requires their sales share to increase by less than 6% percentage points per year.

New zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales targets were announced in several markets and existing targets were intensified as governments demonstrated a strong commitment to incorporating the electrification of cars as a key component of strategies to meet net zero targets and nationally determined contributions.

Electric car registrations and sales share in China, United States, Europe and other regions, 2016-2021