While China and North America maintained their robust electric vehicle sales growth, European EV sales floundered, as Germany faces mounting political and economic changes.
ADVERTISEMENTLast year turned out to be a record one for electric vehicles (EVs) with worldwide sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids surging by 25% to 17.1 million units, according to Rho Motion.
December 2024 was the fourth month in a row of record sales, with more than 1.9 million units sold globally. This was an increase of 5% compared to November.
Ongoing growth in the Chinese electric vehicle market also contributed to last year’s robust performance with Chinese EV sales soaring 40% to 11 million units compared to the previous year. This was primarily due to substantial government incentives and subsidies given to EV makers.
Similarly, in Canada and the US, the market share rose 9% to 1.8 million units in 2024, supported by incoming US president Donald Trump’s plans to slash vehicle tax credits.
However, the European EV market continued to struggle somewhat. Sales across the EU, European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and UK dropped 3% tp 3 million units, compared to the previous year. The reduction of government tax breaks contributed to plunging sales in Germany, leading to dampened European EV sales.
The UK also surpassed Germany to take the crown as Europe’s largest battery-electric vehicle market last year.
Charles Lester, data manager at Rho Motion, said in a press release on the company’s website: “After the record-breaking year in 2023 for EV sales we entered 2024 with some optimism about the market despite headwinds. While overall the global market has boomed, growing by a quarter over the year, the regional disparities have also grown. Europe’s market has shrunk 3% and China’s has grown by 40%.
“What is clear is that government carrots and sticks are working. In North America, the 9% growth can mostly be attributed to consumer subsidies and over in the UK, the ZEV mandate has highly incentivised manufacturers to push their low emission cars. Meanwhile the removal of subsidies in Germany had a devastating impact on the whole European market, if the US follows suit, we may see the same there.”
Corporate giants continue to lean heavily into EVs
Much of the EV sales seen recently have come from corporate or fleet sales, with many key companies placing large EV orders in the last several years.
UK telecom giant BT recently announced a large fleet order of 3,500 EVs, which is one of the country’s biggest commercial electric vehicle fleet orders. The company is expected to have almost 8,000 EVs running by the time this latest order is finished in 2026.
Simon Lowth, chief financial officer (CFO) at BT Group, said in a press release on the company’s website: “By integrating yet more electric vehicles into our operations, we are taking another significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and supporting the UK’s transition to a greener future.
“As we extend our full fibre build from 16 million homes and businesses today to 25 million by the end of 2026, having the most efficient, sustainable electric vehicles will give our engineers the edge as they connect customers at pace to our next generation networks. Our modern fleet will help us to be more efficient and deliver a better service for our customers.”
Amazon also revealed that it has placed its biggest-ever order of electric trucks on Tuesday. The company will be adding over 200 eActros 600 from Mercedes-Benz Trucks to its transport network in Europe later this year.
Andreas Marschner, vice president of Amazon Worldwide Operations Sustainability, said in a press release on the company’s website: “This order of more than 200 electric trucks underlines our commitment to being a leader in electrifying heavy goods transportation in Europe.
“It is the biggest electric heavy truck order by Amazon to date anywhere in the world, and is an important step as we work to achieve our Climate Pledge commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions across our operations by 2040.”
