One new car in four

NewTech Transport

Electric car

Deployment

A car that runs on a battery, with no petrol and no exhaust pipe. One new car in four sold in 2025, plug-in hybrids included.

Estimate
about −50%

in lifetime emissions for a battery-electric car, manufacturing included, against an equivalent combustion car: global average estimated by the IEA (15 years, about 200,000 km).

IEA - Global EV Outlook 2024 ↗

What problem it solves

Replacing the oil burned by cars with electricity.

The limits

Every technology has them. A sheet without limits would be a sales pitch.

  • Price: in 2025, a battery car cost on average about 20% more than an equivalent combustion car in Europe, and about 40% more in Indonesia.
  • The climate gain depends on the power mix: where coal dominates, as in India, it comes close to a hybrid's.
  • Minerals: an electric car needs about six times more than a combustion car, and over 80% of battery cells are made in China.
  • Tyres, brakes and the road also emit particles, electric cars included; Europe is starting to limit them with its Euro 7 standard.
  • Sales still depend on public support: they fell by about 8% worldwide in the first quarter of 2026, after policy changes in China and the United States.

The electric car's comeback

Common around 1900, then pushed out by petrol, it came back once batteries became cheap.

1900

In the United States, about a third of vehicles on the road are electric. By 1935 they have all but vanished, pushed out by petrol.

Deployment
2010

The great fall begins: according to the IEA, lithium-ion battery costs will drop by about 90% in just over a decade.

Deployment
2022

Over 10 million sales worldwide: 14% of new cars, up from under 5% in 2020.

Deployment
Today

Over 20 million sales in 2025, 65% of them battery-electric: one new car in four. They are still only about 5% of the global fleet but already avoid about 1.2 million barrels of oil a day. Sales fell in early 2026.

Deployment

IEA - Global EV Outlook 2023 and 2026; US Department of Energy ↗

Sources

Sheet verified on October 9, 2026. No promised update frequency: the date speaks for itself.

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