Electric cars: global fleet grows to 56 million

Last year, the number of electrified vehicles worldwide rose to 55.8 million. This was reported by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW). China dominates in this segment, both in terms of existing vehicles and new registrations. From a global perspective, vehicles with combustion engines are still overwhelmingly in the lead. The German Association of the Automotive Industry estimated that there were more than 1.3 billion passenger cars worldwide last year – and the trend is still rising.

Battery electric drives, PHEVs and range extenders

The ZSW classifies vehicles with electrified drive systems as passenger cars and light commercial vehicles that have a battery-electric drive, a plug-in hybrid or a range extender. This classification is important because this compilation is explicitly not just about vehicles with an electric drive. Last year, 17.4  million of these electrified vehicles were registered for the first time worldwide. This corresponds to an increase of 17 percent. In China alone, models with one of these drive systems now account for more than a third of all new registrations, at around 11 million.

Other regions can keep up in percentage terms, but not in terms of unit numbers. In Germany, a good 2.6  million cars in 2024 had a battery-electric drive, a plug-in hybrid or a range extender. 572,000 of these were registered for the first time in 2024, of which 381,000 had battery-electric drives, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. This means that just over 1.7 million electric cars were registered in Germany at the end of 2024. The total number of passenger cars in Germany reached a new high of more than 49  million.

Three German manufacturers at the forefront

German manufacturers are quite successful in the international electromobility market. In terms of electric car sales, VW, BMW, and Mercedes were in the top 10 in 2024. Volkswagen was in third place with 4.3 million electric cars, but far behind market leader BYD (10 million electric cars sold) and Tesla (7.3 million). However, the environment is becoming increasingly competitive and China is also expanding its leading position among manufacturers. According to the ZSW analysis, six of the ten most successful e-car manufacturers come from China.

(mfz)