Electric Car Sales by Country: Share of New Cars Sold

Norway sold 172,800 electric cars in 2025, 97% of its new-car market, up from 75% in 2020. Denmark is second at 71%, up from 16%, the biggest gain of any ranked country at 55 points. Sweden follows at 61% (32% in 2020) and the Netherlands at 58% (25%).

These are small markets. FactsFigs estimates Norway sells about 178,000 new cars a year, Denmark about 190,000 and Sweden about 284,000. Those totals are approximate. Norway's 172,800 electric cars are fewer than the Netherlands' 228,000 and about a fifth of Germany's 860,000.

Three markets too small to be ranked also sit above 50%: Nepal at 68%, Iceland at 62% and Finland at 57%. They sold 13,063, 10,200 and 42,000 electric cars, so they appear in the table only.

China's 2025 share is 53% in the data file behind the chart and almost 55% in the IEA's own report text. The cause of the gap is not stated. The chart and table use 53 because they come from one file. Either way China ranks fifth, behind Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

It sold 13.3 million electric cars in 2025 out of 21.2 million worldwide, which is 62.7% of the total. Europe took 20.3% and the United States 7.2%. China's electric sales are about 77 times Norway's 172,800, so the world average of 25% depends heavily on one country.

It also moved fast. China went from 5.7% in 2020 to 53% in 2025, a gain of 47.3 points. Among ranked countries only Denmark, at 55 points, gained more.

Europe as a whole reached 28% in 2025, three points above the world's 25%. Belgium leads the middle of the table at 44%, followed by Portugal at 38% and the United Kingdom at 35%, then Ireland and Switzerland at 34%. Austria is at 31%, Germany at 30% and France at 26%, with Spain at 20%.

Vietnam is the surprise. At 40% it is seventh overall and ahead of every one of those countries except Belgium. It sold about 180,000 electric cars, against 700,000 in the United Kingdom at 35% and 860,000 in Germany at 30%. The IEA's text agrees, putting Vietnam at nearly 40% and Germany at around 30%.

Thailand (23%) and Turkey (22%) are also ahead of Spain (20%), and both started from almost nothing: 1.1% and 0.21% in 2020. The United Kingdom gained 24 points since 2020, Germany 16 and France 15.

By FactsFigs' estimate of market size, the United States, India and Japan are the second, third and fourth largest car markets among the 59 countries, behind only China. All three rank low. The United States is at 10%, 27th of 41 and tied with the Philippines, Czechia and Colombia. India is at 4%, 37th and tied with Chile. Japan is at 3%, 39th.

The IEA's text is more cautious than the whole numbers. It puts the United States just below 10% and Japan at less than 3%, and a whole-number 10 can stand for anything from 9.5 to 9.9. They are called about 10% and under 3% here. All three have grown: the United States from 2.3% in 2020, India from 0.12% and Japan from 0.77%.

Size still makes them matter. The United States sold 1.53 million electric cars, 7.2% of the world total and the biggest national count after China. India sold 170,100 and Japan 102,000.

Japan's figure comes with a definition. The IEA notes that conventional hybrids sell far more than electric cars there, and they are not counted as electric in this ranking. A low score means few plug-in or battery cars, not few hybrids.

South Korea sits in the same band as the United States. It reached double digits for the first time in 2025, at 11%, with electric sales up about 65% to over 200,000 (217,000 in the data file).

Several of the fastest risers lean on one supplier. The IEA says that across emerging markets other than China, 60% of electric car sales are Chinese imports.

Mexico shows it most clearly. Its electric share topped 7% in 2025, up from about 2% in 2024, and 85% of its electric sales were imported from China. The data file shows Mexico at 7% on 90,000 electric cars.

Brazil reached 9%, up from 6.5% in 2024 and 0.16% in 2020. Colombia reached 10%, which the IEA attributes to cheaper Chinese models, tax exemptions and the end of fuel subsidies. Costa Rica reached 17% but sold only 12,190 electric cars, so it is in the table only.

Nepal is at 68%, the third-highest share of all 59 countries. The IEA lists it among the largest increases since 2020, driven by imports from China. The file has no 2020 value for it, and it sold only 13,063 electric cars.

Electric here covers two kinds of car. Battery electric vehicles made up 65% of electric car sales worldwide in 2025, and plug-in hybrids the other 35%.

The mix varies by country. Norway's electric sales were nearly all battery electric, with plug-in hybrids under 2%. In Southeast Asia more than 90% were battery electric. In Brazil battery electric cars were 45% of electric sales, so plug-in hybrids outsell them, and in Uzbekistan they were 33%.

Uzbekistan's share also differs by source. The IEA's report text gives 8% of total car sales, while the data file behind the chart gives 6%. The chart and table keep 6 and the text records 8. The difference is not explained.

For every other country the split is not in the figures shown here, so it is left out rather than guessed.

Share and size answer different questions. Norway's 97% rests on 172,800 cars and China's 53% on 13.3 million, so a place in the ranking says nothing about how many electric cars a country buys. Markets under about 100,000 cars are left out of the ranking for that reason: 18 of the 59.

The cutoff uses FactsFigs' own market sizes. The IEA gives electric sales and shares, so each total here is electric sales divided by the rounded share. A share shown as 25% could be anywhere from 24.5% to 25.5%, which moves the total by about 2%. New Zealand (about 96,700 cars) and Slovakia (about 93,400) are within 7% of the line and could sit on either side.

Rounding also creates ties. 55 of the 59 values for 2025 are whole numbers, and 8 values among the 41 ranked are shared by two or more countries, such as Switzerland and Ireland at 34% or the United States, the Philippines, Czechia and Colombia at 10%. Ranks 27 and 30 are the same share.

Finally, a share of sales in one year is not a share of the cars on the road, and it counts plug-in hybrids as electric but conventional hybrids as not.

Norway leads on share at 97% and China on volume at 13.3 million cars. The four European countries above 50% sold 708,500 electric cars between them, about 3.3% of the 21.2 million sold worldwide. China alone sold 62.7%.

The movement is in the middle. Vietnam is ahead of the United Kingdom, Germany and France, Mexico and Colombia grew on Chinese imports, and the United States at about 10%, India at 4% and Japan under 3% all rank in the lower half. The world average is 25% and Europe's is 28%.

All figures are the IEA's for 2025, read on 13 November 2026. For how far these cars go and how claims about them hold up, see our post on EV range, 0-60 times and self-driving.