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Electric vehicles from Tesla photographed in China. The world’s second largest economy is a major player when it comes to the sale of electric vehicles.

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Electric car sales jumped to more than 10 million last year, with China accounting for roughly 60% of the market, according to a report from the International Energy Agency published Wednesday.

The record sales figures, contained within the IEA’s Global EV Outlook for 2023, continue a trend of sustained growth for the industry.

“Electric car sales — including battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) — exceeded 10 million last year, up 55% relative to 2021,” the IEA’s report said.

“This figure — 10 million EV sales worldwide — exceeds the total number of cars sold across the entire European Union (about 9.5 million vehicles) and is nearly half of the total number of cars sold in China in 2022,” it added.  

The IEA defined “sales” within its report as being “an estimate of the number of new vehicles hitting the roads.”

In total, it said more than 26 million electric cars were on the world’s roads in 2022, which represents a 60% increase relative to 2021.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, have an internal combustion engine as well as a battery-powered electric motor.

Some regard them as an important tool in the transition toward low- and zero-emission forms of transport. Others, including organizations such as Greenpeace UK, take a dim view of them.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

Looking ahead, the Paris-based IEA — seen by many as an authoritative voice on the energy transition — said it was estimating worldwide sales to reach almost 14 million in 2023.

“This explosive growth means electric cars’ share of the overall car market has risen from around 4% in 2020 to 14% in 2022 and is set to increase further to 18% this year, based on the latest IEA projections,” a statement accompanying the report noted.  

Chinese market dominant

The IEA described China as being “the frontrunner” when it came to electric car sales. It added that over 50% of electric cars on the road could now be found in the world’s second-largest economy.    

“In Europe, the second largest market, electric car sales increased by over 15% in 2022, meaning that more than one in every five cars sold was electric,” the IEA said, adding that U.S. electric car sales had risen by 55% in 2022.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

“Electric vehicles are one of the driving forces in the new global energy economy that is rapidly emerging – and they are bringing about a historic transformation of the car manufacturing industry worldwide,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said.

“The trends we are witnessing have significant implications for global oil demand,” he added.

“The internal combustion engine has gone unrivalled for over a century, but electric vehicles are changing the status quo.”

“By 2030, they will avoid the need for at least 5 million barrels a day of oil. Cars are just the first wave: electric buses and trucks will follow soon.”

Unlocking India’s potential

While China, Europe and the U.S. are big players when it comes to electric cars, the IEA noted that other parts of the world were also showing “promising signs.”

“Electric car sales are generally low outside the major markets, but 2022 was a growth year in India, Thailand and Indonesia,” it said. “Collectively, sales of electric cars in these countries more than tripled compared to 2021, reaching 80,000.”

India was seeing a “ramping up” of both EV and component manufacturing, Wednesday’s report said. This had been backed by a $3.2 billion incentive program from the Indian government, which had in turn led to $8.3 billion of investment.   

Challenges ahead

The past few years have seen a number of large economies lay out plans to ramp up the number of EVs on their roads.

The U.K., for instance, wants to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030 and will require, from 2035, all new cars and vans to have zero tailpipe emissions.

The European Union, which the U.K. left on Jan. 31, 2020, is also looking to reduce emissions from road based transportation.

And over in the U.S., California — America’s most populous state — is banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

While there is excitement about the potential of low- and zero-emission vehicles, the shift away from cars powered by fossil fuels won’t always be smooth.

There are concerns, for example, that the lower noise levels of EVs may pose a challenge to people with sight problems. In addition, talk of a skills gap is sparking discussions about cost and safety, while ensuring charging infrastructure is accessible to all is another area to watch.

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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5 hours ago

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April 2, 2025

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, the French CAE and the German Council of Economic Experts have called for "a common approach" by France and Germany in the decarbonisation of road freight transport. And in doing so, the experts are clearly committed to battery-electric trucks.

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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6 hours ago

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April 2, 2025

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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8 hours ago

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April 1, 2025

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova SunZia
Photo: GE Vernova

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction

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