EV growth rose again in 2024, despite media & political lies saying otherwise
In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year, according to a new report by Rho Motion. This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.
However, an entire year of false political, media and industry statements might have had you thinking otherwise.
You’ve probably heard this lie many times over the course of more than a year: that, supposedly, EV sales are in trouble, and are slowing drastically.
This myth has been pushed by many, in many forms, with varying levels of wrongness. The position has been so pervasive that it might as well be universal – it has been taken as accepted fact that EV sales are down, even though they simply aren’t.
Sometimes it has been an intentional distortion from actors who oppose the growth of clean-air vehicles, but the attitude has become so pervasive that many have repeated it unthinkingly, without actually looking at the data. And thus this misinformation has become oft-repeated common knowledge, despite being incorrect.
But today, Rho Motion, an electric vehicle research consultancy, is out with a new report showing what we knew all along – that EV sales are still growing strongly.
No, EV sales didn’t slow
One form of this misinformation says that EV sales are down – which is to say that fewer people are buying EVs now than were in the past. This is phenomenally untrue – per the data at the end of the year (and quarterly data mid-year as well, as we pointed out), EV sales grew and set records in every territory around the world in 2024 except Europe, where they were down just 3%.
Rho Motion’s report, out today, shows that EV sales increased in all regions other than Europe, and across the globe as a whole. China experienced the largest growth at 40%, with North America growing by 9% and the “rest of the world” growing at 27%.
But even the European numbers are misleading, given that European EV sales were mostly up outside of its largest country Germany, which saw a decrease due to the country ending EV incentives in late 2023, leading to a pull-forward in demand and subsequent drop in sales.
But outside of that one region, driven largely by an end in incentives in one country, the rest of the world’s regions, and the globe itself, saw a drastic increase in EV sales.
This rise happened despite the world’s largest EV maker, Tesla, seeing its first sequential decline in sales since 2011, dragging down a market that may have otherwise risen even faster. Tesla’s sales drop was driven less by overall EV disinterest, as proven by continued EV growth across the world, and more by stale models and an incompetent CEO who has abandoned the mission of the company and cozied up with anti-EV interests, thus turning away customers.
No, EV sales growth didn’t slow, either
Another, lighter form of misinformation repeated throughout the last year stated that EV sales growth has slowed. There’s a difference between this statement and saying that sales are down – many headlines described EV sales as falling, cooling, slowing, etc., but those words would apply to a decrease, when in fact EV sales increased.
EV sales “growth” is different, and after so many people lied saying that EV sales were going down, some instead took the lighter position that EV sales would simply not grow as much in 2024 as they had in 2023. The suggestion here was that the rate of change of EV sales (that is, the second derivative of sales numbers) would reduce, and that that signaled trouble.
But we now know that even that assertion is wrong.
Looking into Rho Motion’s data for the last couple years, the world sold 17.1 million plug-in cars in 2024. In 2023, the world sold 13.6 million, and in 2022, the world sold 10.4 million. Rho Motion’s numbers do include both BEVs and PHEVs, but not cars without a plug.
Let’s look at the difference between those numbers. In 2023, EV sales grew by 3.2 million units across the world. But in 2024, EV sales grew by 3.5 million, which for those in the back is in fact a bigger number than 3.2 million.
This means that not only did EV sales grow in 2024, but the rate of growth even went up on a unit basis.
This rise in growth is obscured by using percentages rather than raw numbers (showing 31% growth in 2023, but 25% in 2024, as these numbers do), because any number that starts small and rapidly grows will inevitably experience lower percentage growth over time.
If, for example, your company sold 100 units in one year, then 1,000 units in the next, then 9,000 units in the next year, you would clearly understand that the third year is your best year in sales, and your biggest year of growth, as you added +8,000 unit sales compared to the previous year’s +900 unit sales growth.
But if you look at it on a percentage basis, your growth just went down from +900% to +800%. Even though your company is clearly doing increasingly better, you’ve added far more employees than ever before, your revenues are at an order of magnitude they’ve never reached before, etc., someone who is looking for impossible, infinitely-continuing exponential growth could try to look at this and claim that your company is doing worse than it was.
So, even these arguments focusing on slower sales growth are misleading. EV sales went up in 2024, and they went up by more than they did in the previous year. Some of us thought at the beginning of 2024 that this may end up being the case, even in the face of all this disinformation from anti-EV forces in media, industry and politics. Those of us who predicted that are vindicated, now that all the cards are on the table.
Gas car sales are in long-term decline
Meanwhile, one thing that all of these headlines ignore is that gas car sales are in long-term decline.
Among all the false focus on EV sales throughout the year, relatively fewer headlines have noted that global gas car sales hit their peak in 2017, have not hit that peak again, and likely will never hit that peak again. They’re down about a quarter from that peak, and show no signs of recovering, as it’s likely that any increase in vehicle sales will be taken up by growth in EV sales, not gas car sales.
So the growth in EV sales should look even stronger when compared to the long-term weakness of gas car sales.
This is great news for the world, and for everyone’s health, as gas cars create pollution that damages every organ in the body, kills millions of people per year, and is a primary driver of climate change which is already causing an uptick in natural disasters and threatens to displace over a billion people.
Of course, cars themselves, regardless of powertrain, still have numerous other negative environmental effects, and a shift to micromobility and mass transit would be even more environmentally preferable. But as long as gas cars are unfortunately still being made, seeing them trend downward and be replaced by vehicles that don’t spew poison from their tailpipes during every second of operation should be cause for celebration for all living things on Earth.
But what isn’t great is that, even with today’s news showing how false all of these headlines have been throughout the year, we’re not sure any of this is going to stop in our current post-truth era. The lies have not just been proven wrong today, but were wrong all along – EV sales weren’t down at any point over the course of the last year, but people kept ignoring the data and saying it.
Why does it matter? These lies influence policy – and cause more pollution
All of this matters because these constant incorrect statements have caused changes in plans for both automakers and governments who are pulling back their EV targets, and because it contributes to incorrect consumer perceptions which in turn actually can affect demand, all of which dooms humanity to worse health and climate outcomes.
Early on as this pattern of lies started to show itself in the media, David Reichmuth of the Union of Concerned Scientists suggested that one motivation behind the false headlines could be to influence regulations. The idea goes that, by pretending EV sales were “cooling,” despite that they were not, automakers could convince governments to pull back on their future commitments, thus allowing them to continue business as usual instead of having to put in effort to make actually good cars that don’t poison everything around them.
But those regulations already passed and timelines were loosened after automaker whining, so congratulations, you got what you wanted. You get to do little to change, you left open the door for new entrants to take over your industry, and you get to poison people a bit more for a few more years. You can stop lying now.
And yet, the headlines continued, and so many outlets continued to push the same false narrative that they had for more than a year claiming that EV sales are down. Some number of consumers who hear these constant falsehoods may have their EV buying decisions delayed as a result, which could in turn have suppressed EV sales below the even higher level that they might have been at without so much incorrect reporting.
And yes, higher EV sales growth rates would be preferable to the current status quo and are needed to meet climate targets. Or rather, a faster decline in gas car sales is what’s truly needed – and would be beneficial to all living beings on this planet.
The environment cannot wait, and humans can’t spend the next 10-20 years breathing down the poison coming out of the tailpipe of each gas-powered vehicle sold today. This needs to end and it needs to end now. The faster we act, the easier it will be for the world to reach carbon reductions that are objectively necessary to achieve.
So stop lying about EV sales trends
But overall, the point of this article is that media headlines and political statements suggesting a slowdown in EV sales are simply incorrect. And it’s hard to imagine that these headlines, which continued for more than a year, were not intentional.
Each journalist, politician, or auto company CEO who perpetuated the myth of an EV sales slowdown could have read any one of our articles, or googled a single number showing year-over-year EV sales in any region or for most countries and most brands, and found that outside of a few outliers, they are still going up. The information is out there and easy to find.
Today’s report ought to be the final nail in the coffin that gets people to stop repeating this nonsense. Thankfully, we’ve seen it less in the last couple months, so hopefully it’s petering out by now, but we expect this falsehood will still linger on in some realms. But if you hear it, now you know the truth: EV sales are up, and they were up more in 2024 than they were in 2023.
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Elon Musk, who already suggested Tesla invest in xAI, is now setting the stage for the public company under his control to grossly overpay for xAI, a private company under his control that just absorbed Twitter (X).
Anyone invested in a mutual fund that owns Tesla shares could be about to bail out Musk and his billionaire friends.
At $44 billion, Musk knew he was overpaying for Twitter and tried to back out of the deal.
Within a year of Musk taking Twitter private, Fidelity Investments, which invested in Musk’s Twitter acquisition, revalued its investment as being down 65% from its purchase price.
A year later, in October 2024, Fidelity valued Twitter, X by now, at just $10 billion.
That’s not surprising since Musk had Twitter take on $12 billion in debt as part of the take-private deal, and revenue fell by roughly half under his leadership.
To take Twitter private, Musk personally financed the deal with $25 billion of his own and his existing stake in Twitter, $12 billion in debt, and about $7 billion in investment from his friends.
As of October, most of that equity was gone, but Musk wasn’t about to let a loss slide on his record.
In 2023, he launched xAI, a private company under his control that develops AI products. Tesla investors are suing him for breach of fiduciary duty and resource tunneling over the founding of xAI since he had previously stated that Tesla would be a big player in AI and simultaneously threatened not to build AI products at Tesla if he didn’t get more control of the company, but let’s put that aside for now.
When raising money for xAI in 2023, Axios reported on how Musk might use the AI company as a “plan B to save Twitter” and Musk responded:
“I have never lost money for those who invest in me and I am not starting now.”
Who are these people who invested in Twitter with Musk? There’s a long list, but two of the biggest investors are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi Arabian billionaire and head of Kingdom Holding Company, and Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder of Oracle. Both are close friends of Musk.
VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the highly controversial crypto exchange Binance, and the previously mentioned Fidelity Investments have also invested in the deal.
By the end of 2024, those people were basically writing down 80% of their investment in Twitter, as per Fidelity.
However, a few months later, in March 2025, X was somehow valued back at $44 billion as part of a “so-called secondary deal.” Some took this information as news that X had turned around, but many were skeptical that the valuation could have gone from $10 billion to $44 billion in just 5 months.
Sure enough, we quickly learned that the new valuation had little to do with improved financials at X and was instead based on Musk pushing for xAI to buy X at $45 billion through an all-stock acquisition. A company’s valuation is only what someone is willing to pay for it and Musk was willing for xAI to “pay” $45 billion.
In late March, Musk announced that xAI had acquired X in a deal valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $45 billion, while xAI would take on X’s $12 billion debt.
The world’s richest man was not shy about highlighting the controversial self-dealing here:
It’s worth noting that xAI had raised only $12 billion at a $40 billion valuation with virtually no revenue as of December 2024, and now it’s a $125 billion company, based entirely on Musk’s valuation, with $12 billion in debt.
How does Tesla plays into this?
Musk has promised Tesla shareholders that the Twitter acquisition would be good for the company. That was after he sold tens of billions of dollars worth of Tesla stocks to buy Twitter – sending Tesla’s stock crashing.
Tesla shareholders haven’t really seen a return on that yet unless you count a brief surge in stock price after Trump was elected, with the help of Musk and X, but the stock has since erased all those gains since Trump came into office.
Now, xAI is the plan B.
Last summer, Musk suggested that Tesla invests $5 billion in xAI, but that was before the company acquired X. Musk will need shareholder’s approval for a deal between xAI and Tesla, which would happen at Tesla’s shareholders meeting – generally held in June.
Now, Tesla’s CEO, who has been complaining about his eroding control of Tesla after selling shares to buy Twitter, has greatly inflated the value of xAI through this acquisition of X ahead of the potential investment.
Musk has also discussed Tesla integrating Grok, xAI’s large language model, into its products, specifically its electric vehicles.
A post on X this weekend suggested that this might be happening soon:
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s LLM, has already been integrated in many vehicles, including from the Volkswagen Group, Peugeot, and Mercedes-Benz.
Electrek’s Take
The grift never stops. As I have been saying for years, Musk is not equipped to be an executive of a public company, and this is just the latest example.
If all these entities were private, and he was taking his affluent private investor friends on a ride, I wouldn’t have any problem with this, but Tesla is a public company included in many ETFs and mutual funds. Many people own Tesla stocks without even knowing.
But as Musk said himself, he doesn’t let people who invested in him lose money. Does that include Tesla investors?
I don’t think it does anymore.
There’s an argument to be made that Tesla shareholders should already own Musk’s stake in xAI. That’s what the breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit is about. Musk said that Tesla was “a world leader in AI’ and said that AI products would be critical to the company’s future.
Then, he starts a private AI company and threaten Tesla shareholders that he will not build AI products at Tesla if he doesn’t get more than 25% control over the company. That’s a clear breach of fiduciary duties to Tesla shareholders as the CEO of Tesla, but it will likely take years to solve this through courts.
In the meantime, Musk is pushing for Tesla to invest in xAI, which is now valued at $125 billion – a number completely made up by Musk.
Grok is not a bad product, but it ranks below OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’S Gemini in most AI rankings. It also relies too heavily on information from X, which is far from reliable. Most experts see xAI as being way behind OpenAI and other AI companies, which are already generating significant revenue.
Now, I doubt Musk will still push for a $5 billion investment from Tesla. I don’t think that Musk will want Tesla to spend 15% of its cash position on this amid delcinign earnings and a very difficult macroeconomic situation.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Musk pushing for Tesla to invest in xAI as part of a stock deal.
The timing would be good for Musk. Tesla’s current brand issues, lower deliveries, crashing earnings have led to a much lower share price on top of the crashing US stock market. If Tesla’s share price is lower, Musk can get more shares for his made-up valuation of xAI.
Musk likely owns more than 50% of xAI post X acquisition. A stock deal would virtually result in him getting half of the Tesla stocks that are part of the deal – boosting his stake in Tesla, which has been his goal since selling his stake to buy an overpriced Twitter.
In short, Musk sold Tesla stocks to buy an overpriced Twitter, regretted it and threatened Tesla shareholders to get more shares. Now, he might get Tesla shareholders to pay for the acquisition again at the same ridiculous valuation.
The craziest thing about all of this is that I bet Tesla shareholders are going to approve this scheme.
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Specialized has announced a voluntary recall for several of its popular Turbo e-bike models after identifying a safety issue with the chain guard that could pose a fall risk to riders. The culprit? A clothing-eating drivetrain setup that may be a bit too hungry for its own good.
The recall affects Turbo Como IGH, Turbo Como SL IGH, and Turbo Vado IGH models equipped with internal gear hubs (IGH), sold between 2021 and 2024. According to Specialized, certain chain guards on these bikes may allow loose-fitting clothing to become entrapped in the drivetrain, potentially causing crashes or falls.
The recall includes both belt-drive and chain-drive models. Models equipped with traditional rear derailleurs are not part of the recall and remain unaffected.
The issue isn’t widespread in terms of injuries — thankfully, as there have been no reports of serious harm. But as Specialized continues to grow its e-bike lineup, especially in the urban and commuter segment, it’s clear they’re taking proactive steps to ensure rider safety and confidence.
Riders of affected bikes are being advised to stop using their e-bikes immediately and schedule a free chain guard replacement with their local Specialized retailer. The fix will be installed at no cost, and Specialized is footing the bill for both parts and labor.
You can check if your model is affected by visiting Specialized’s official recall notice page, or by contacting their Rider Care team.
This recall lands in a growing category of micromobility safety updates and recalls, as more riders turn to e-bikes and scooters for daily transportation. From battery-related recalls to structural flaws, the increased adoption of electric two-wheelers has put new pressure on manufacturers to catch potential issues early.
While the vast majority of all e-bikes and e-scooters will never see a recall, the growing number of models on the road has seen an uptick in such occurrences over the last few years.
Electrek’s Take
While it’s always disappointing to see a defect, it’s encouraging to see brands like Specialized move quickly, transparently, and without passing costs to the customer.
And let’s be honest: for riders who favor flowing pants, long jackets, or any other long garment, these kinds of things can happen. My wife learned that the hard way when she lost a chunk of her kimono last year when she switched to riding her bike to work every day. Securing long, flowing clothing is just part of the safety procedure for riding bike. It’s good that Specialized is being proactive here, but I think just about any bike could see long garments getting sucked into a chain if conditions are right – or wrong.
I reviewed one of these e-bikes a few years ago and it was an incredible ride. I managed to escape with my pants intact, and I’d still ride one any day. If I owned one though, I’d probably take it in for that free chain-guard swap, though – which is just another example of a benefit of buying a bike shop e-bike as opposed to a direct-to-consumer brand. I love my D2C e-bikes, but having a bike shop help with this stuff, or even reach out to you directly during a recall, is a big plus in my book.
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Environment
U.S. crude oil falls below $60 a barrel to lowest since 2021 on tariff-fueled recession fears
A view shows disused oil pump jacks at the Airankol oil field operated by Caspiy Neft in the Atyrau Region, Kazakhstan April 2, 2025.
Pavel Mikheyev | Reuters
U.S. oil prices dropped below $60 a barrel on Sunday on fears President Donald Trump’s global tariffs would push the U.S., and maybe the world, into a recession.
Futures tied to U.S. West Texas intermediate crude fell more than 3% to $59.74 on Sunday night. The move comes after back-to-back 6% declines last week. WTI is now at the lowest since April 2021.
Worries are mounting that tariffs could lead to higher prices for businesses, which could lead to a slowdown in economic activity that would ultimately hurt demand for oil.
Oil futures, 5 years
The tariffs, which are set to take effect this week, “would likely push the U.S. and possibly global economy into recession this year,” according to JPMorgan. The firm on Thursday raised its odds of a recession this year to 60% following the tariff rollout, up from 40%.
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