LONDON

Electric car sales worldwide are set to grow by 35% this year to reach 14 million and expand their share of the overall car market to 18%, driven by strong support programs in major economies, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday.

The IEA's annual Global Electric Vehicle Outlook report showed that more than 10 million electric cars were sold worldwide in 2022, a record increase of 55% compared to the previous year.

The explosive growth brought electric cars' share of the overall car market to 14% last year from 9% in 2021 and 4% in 2020.

The total number of electric cars on the roads reached 26 million after last year's record surge.

"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," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said on the report.

"The trends we are witnessing have significant implications for global oil demand. 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."

Data shows the majority of electric car sales to date are concentrated in China, Europe and the US.

China accounted for about 60% of global electric car sales last year and also accounted for over 50% of all the electric cars on the world's roads, with a total of 13.8 million.

"This strong growth results from more than a decade of sustained policy support for early adopters, including an extension of purchase incentives initially planned for phase-out in 2020 to the end of 2022 due to COVID-19, in addition to non-financial support such as rapid roll-out of charging infrastructure and stringent registration policies for non-electric cars," the IEA said in the report.

The share of electric car sales in China's total domestic car sales reached 29% last year, up from 16% in 2021.

Europe and US account for 35% of new electric car sales

Europe remained the world's second largest electric car market after China, accounting for 25% of all electric car sales in 2022 and 30% of the global stock.

The continent last year saw an increase of 15% in electric cars sales, reaching 2.7 million. The sales share of electric cars rose to 21% last year from 18% in 2021.

Germany was the biggest market in Europe with 830,000 new electric car registrations in 2022, followed by the UK with 370,000 and France with 330,000. Spain registered over 80,000 new electric cars.

However, electric car sales in Italy fell to 115,000 last year from 140,000 in 2021 while they also decreased or stagnated in Austria, Denmark and Finland.

The new electric car sales in the US neared one million, accounting for 10% of the global growth in sales.

The total stock of electric cars in the US reached 3 million as the share of 2022 electric car sales was 8% of total car sales.

Although electric car sales are concentrated in a few markets, India, Indonesia and Thailand were among the countries recording significant growth last year.

Electric car sales in Türkiye nearly double

Türkiye saw about 7,500 new electric car registrations in 2022, almost doubling sales in 2021.

The total electric car stock in the country reached over 16,000 after last year's growth. The share of electric cars in Türkiye's total car market stood at 1% in 2022.

Türkiye aims to produce 1 million units of the first indigenous electric car brand Togg by 2030. Togg began selling its first model, the T10X, in the domestic market and plans to deliver 20,000 units of electric cars within this year.

This year's Q1 sales up 25% worldwide

In the first quarter of this year, global sales of electric cars grew by 25% compared to the same period of 2022, reaching 2.3 million. This number is forecast to hit 14 million by the end of the year.

"Ambitious policy programs in major economies such as the Fit for 55 package in the European Union and the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States are expected to further increase market share for electric vehicles this decade and beyond," said the report.

In parallel with the stronger policies, the average share of electric cars in total sales across China, the EU and the US is set to rise to about 60% by 2030.

As the growing electric car market is increasing demand for battery production, the report said that announced battery manufacturing projects would be more than enough to meet demand for electric vehicles.

"However, manufacturing remains highly concentrated, with China dominating the battery and component trade and increasing its share of global electric car exports to more than 35% last year," the IEA cautioned, stressing the need for improving competition in other regions.