Electric car fleet is growing rapidly: This is how many electric cars are already on the road worldwide!

In 2024, approximately 17.4 million electric cars were newly registered worldwide. This represents an increase of approximately 17 percent over the previous year, according to an analysis by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW). This includes pure battery-powered vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles with range extenders.

China remains clearly dominant, recording over 11 million new electric vehicle registrations in 2024. The United States ranked second, while Germany came in third with approximately 572,500 new electric vehicles, just ahead of the United Kingdom. Although this brings the total number of electric vehicles on the road in Germany to over 2.6 million, the target of 15 million vehicles by 2030 remains a long way off.

The global fleet grew significantly by the end of 2024, reaching 55.8 million electric cars. More than half of this was in China. The USA followed with approximately 6.4 million electric cars, and Germany remained in third place. Smaller markets such as Denmark (growth of 46 percent) and Canada (plus 44 percent) developed particularly dynamically.

With approximately 2.4 million new registrations, the European Union was the second-largest sales market for electric vehicles, behind China (11.3 million) and ahead of the USA (1.6 million). While demand in China continues to grow strongly, momentum is slowing in Europe and the USA. China now accounts for approximately two-thirds of the global electric vehicle market.

Collapse in Germany after the end of state funding

In Germany, the downward trend continued: After a 16 percent decline in 2023, new registrations fell by a further 18 percent in 2024. One of the main reasons was the sudden discontinuation of the government purchase premium for electric cars at the end of 2023, which had a significant impact on market activity.

Norway, on the other hand, demonstrates how stable political conditions can lead to market success. Last year, eight out of ten newly registered cars there had electric drives. Despite reduced subsidies – only models up to approximately €44,000 are eligible for funding – the country remains a leader. Tax exemptions on imports and VAT, as well as advantages for tolls and transport infrastructure, have proven effective over the years.

For Germany, ZSW expert Andreas Püttner proposes focusing the company car tax exemption more strongly on electric vehicles and introducing binding CO₂ fleet limits for companies. This could not only stabilize the new car segment but also strengthen the used car market in the long term.

International presence of German brands remains strong

Despite weak performance in the domestic market, German automakers are holding their own globally: VW, BMW, and Mercedes remain among the world's top ten manufacturers of electric vehicles by sales. Volkswagen ranks third with over 4.3 million cumulative sales. Nevertheless, the gap to the leading manufacturers BYD from China (over 10 million vehicles) and Tesla from the USA (around 7.3 million) remains considerable.

A look at the world's strongest brands also shows that six of the ten most successful manufacturers in 2024 came from China. In addition to well-known names such as BYD, Geely, and SAIC, brands such as Li Xiang, Seres, and Changan also gained importance.

Chinese brands also dominate the best-selling vehicle models: eight of the ten top models come from China. Furthermore, Chinese manufacturers now cover all major vehicle segments – from affordable small cars to large premium vehicles.

"If European manufacturers want to compete, they must bring affordable models to market more quickly, making electric mobility accessible to broad sections of the population," emphasizes Püttner.