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Gas Cars Fall Below 50% of Global New Car Sales for the First Time (electrek.co) 147

Posted by EditorDavid from the going-green dept.
"Gas cars are now a minority of the world's new car sales," reports Electrek. Gasoline-only vehicles made up 49% of global new-vehicle sales in the first half of 2026, down from 73% in 2021, according to Mobility Global data first reported by Nikkei. It's the first time on record that they've been under half. But there's a catch: most of the cars taking their place still have a gas tank... [The share of gas-only vehicles] fell three points in a single year, from 52% to 49%. Battery-electric vehicles grew 12% to 6.87 million units and took 17% of the market, up three points. Conventional hybrids grew 10% to 7.27 million units, or 18%... [T]he rest is diesel, plug-in hybrids and a few minor fuels.

Nikkei ties the acceleration to oil. Fuel prices spiked with the conflict in the Middle East, and buyers went looking for lower running costs. The whole car market shrank about 5% in the first half, according to the IEA, so gas-only sales fell twice as fast as the market. Gas car sales dropped the most in China, down 26%, followed by Europe at 13%... Mobility Global has battery-electric sales up 32% in Europe to 1.81 million, up 81% in Southeast Asia to 350,000, and more than doubling in Oceania to 110,000... Yoshiaki Kawano, an associate director at Mobility Global, told Nikkei that few EV buyers go back to gasoline cars or hybrids. He expects demand based on "genuine consumer needs rather than subsidies" to grow as prices come down...

[Hybrids] outsold battery-electric vehicles in the first half, 7.27 million to 6.87 million... Only the 17% that's battery-electric burns no fuel at all. So about 83% of the new vehicles sold in the world this year still came with an engine.
The article notes that U.S. hybrid sales were up 23%, reaching a record 16.3% of vehicles sold in the second quarter of 2026, while the share of ICE vehicles went down.

Gas-only cars went from 73% to 49% of the market in less than five years, and nothing in the data suggests they're getting that share back. The last time gasoline wasn't on top was the early 1900s, when steam and electric cars outsold it in the US.

I hate seeing media headlines claiming that "EV sales are down" and that "EV growth has stalled." The data is clear: that's true in the US, but only in the US. The rest of the world is moving to electric vehicles, and it is not slowing down.

Gas Cars Fall Below 50% of Global New Car Sales for the First Time More | Reply

Gas Cars Fall Below 50% of Global New Car Sales for the First Time

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  • EV in nordic countries (Score:5, Informative)

    by Quantum gravity ( 2576857 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @05:38PM (#66371282)
    New EV car sales in the Nordic region is doing well. Here are the figures from August 2026:
    Norway = 98.7%
    Denmark = 85.9%
    Finland = 51.6%
    Sweden = 45.5%
    Iceland also has a percentage.

    • Re:EV in nordic countries (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dutt ( 738848 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @06:27PM (#66371338) Homepage

      Sweden doesn't have any EV sale incentives sponsored by the government, in contrast to the benefits that were in place in Norway. The statistics show the result.

      • Guess which country does not care about petrol costs, but are loving the oil sales profits.
      • Another reason for the gap between Norway and the rest of the nordics is that chinese EVs are freely available in Norway, whereas the EU (that includes Denmark, Finland and Sweden) regulates their import. Also, pretty much everything in Norway eased EV adoption:
        1. Hydropower and very low electricity prices (although now this changes drastically due to electricity exports to mainland europe; spot-prices are through the roof!).
        2. It's very popular to own a house, which means that pretty much everyone can c

        • "original use was meant for supporting a small diesel heater and a fan that would burn some of your car's fuel for preventing the car from freezing over"
          What?
          The electric charge was most commonly used to power a heating element that warmed the block and on diesels provided some warming to the fuel. I understand that some systems had blower fans but this was to prewarm the cabin& keep with windows clear.

          • Both of these approaches have been used. Some vehicles have both things. For example a Sprinter T1N always has glow plugs, but a block heater is an option, but an Espar heater is actually more common! And when equipped, it comes with a timer, not just a knob controller like you would get with the cheapest install kit.

        • Another reason for the gap between Norway and the rest of the nordics is that chinese EVs are freely available in Norway, whereas the EU (that includes Denmark, Finland and Sweden) regulates their import.

          Regulation != Not freely available. Name your Chinese company of choice and you can find them freely available on the market in the EU. Bonus points, even with the additional (tiny) tariff applied due to the EU rules against China sponsoring their own industry, they are still the cheapest and best bang-for buck options on the market.

          By the way 9 of the top 10 EV brands for sale in Norway is not Chinese, and the lone standout is Volvo, which many people barely reaslise is Chinese. China is doing fuck all to drive Norway's sales.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        The incentives are worth it even if you don't believe in climate change, because they reduce the amount of soot you are breathing in.

    • Their (the list nordic nations) population centers, simpler highway network, etc make public charging infrastructure easier to deploy. Which makes EVs more practical.

      In the US with a more dispersed population and complex road network, public charging infrastructure is more complicated. We still have too many gaps. Unless you have a charger at home EVs are a bit of an inconvenience. Which is why Hybrids are so popular in the USA.

      Note the summary is citing gasonline only. Which means the good numbers ar

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Archfeld ( 6757 )

        so don't do charging stations, do battery replacement stations. Hot swappable batteries does away with the charge time and makes a whole new subscription business model for the service stations to move to and not die. The Govt. could specify a standard battery compartment and hookups, allowing for a HUGE 3rd party market. Just imagine the AmazonBasics[tm] battery line that catches fire as often as AIs hallucinate.

        • so don't do charging stations, do battery replacement stations

          Too make/model specific. And the design trend in EVs is for batteries that are structural. They are not a box bolted onto the frame, they are starting to become a part of the "frame" itself.

      • Re:Summary is referring to EV plus Hybrids (Score:5, Informative)

        by jezwel ( 2451108 ) on Monday October 12, 2026 @02:28AM (#66371768)

        In the US with a more dispersed population and complex road network, public charging infrastructure is more complicated. We still have too many gaps. Unless you have a charger at home EVs are a bit of an inconvenience. Which is why Hybrids are so popular in the USA.

        Australia is worse than the US in every way for public charging infrastructure, yet the new car market is now at quarters - 1/4 EV, 1/4 hybrid, 1/4 gas, 1/4 diesel. Expect the EV and hybrid portions to continue to grow, especially with cheap Chinese EVs pushing prices down across the board.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 0xG ( 712423 )

          In the US with a more dispersed population and complex road network, public charging infrastructure is more complicated. We still have too many gaps. Unless you have a charger at home EVs are a bit of an inconvenience. Which is why Hybrids are so popular in the USA.

          Australia is worse than the US in every way for public charging infrastructure, yet the new car market is now at quarters - 1/4 EV, 1/4 hybrid, 1/4 gas, 1/4 diesel. Expect the EV and hybrid portions to continue to grow, especially with cheap Chinese EVs pushing prices down across the board.

          The difference is that in USA cars are a political issue. If you are a MAGA type, you buy a pickup - the bigger, the better (one-tons are fine), regardless of gas prices. If you care about the environment, an EV is your goto. This is unlikely to change any time soon.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            Or it just could be the price of fuel! From my own experience, currently a farm worker who commutes to work 30 miles every day spends at $700 CAD in gas (paid for by the farm of course), whereas the EV Lightning truck is probably $100 CAD in electricity per month while still doing daily farm work, sometimes requiring a charge on farm. The farm has a fast charger installed, along with solar so electricity is essentially free if charged on farm (most of the hired guys charge at home overnight, but it's stil

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hoofie ( 201045 )

          Australia, despite its immense size, has the vast majority of its population concentrated in large coastal cities. An EV works quite happily in that environment as you are not travelling large distances. Go outside the cities though and chargers are rare especially in areas like WA where long distance journeys have to be very carefully planned - the only exception might be Perth to Margaret River which is such a popular trip chargers have been installed along the route and are well used.

      • Also they probably have trains for long trips. If you want to drive more than 4 hours through Sweden you take a train.
      • I've heard this said but I don't think it is all that true the more I think about it, even in the boonies most houses are going to have a clothes dryer, and they'd only need that level of power if they want Level 2 charging at home, whereas Level 1 is going to be sufficient for lots of folks and just uses a regular outlet. You don't see large densities of apartment buildings that would need outlets for each parking spot in a garage in low density areas. We've been fine with level 1, I didn't even run a de

      • Re:Summary is referring to EV plus Hybrids (Score:5, Informative)

        by Dr_Terminus ( 1222504 ) on Monday October 12, 2026 @10:06AM (#66372250)

        I'm curious -- what gaps do you feel we have in the US in our charging infrastructure? I have an EV and I've so far never experienced any gaps. My last 2 long road trips last year were each ~3000 miles round-trip and I went through some pretty sparsely populated states and I never had any issues charging my EV.

      • We still have too many gaps.

        No you don't. Unless you go camping in the wilderness there's virtually no trip you can't do in the USA on an EV. The USA was the first country to have nation wide quick charging infrastructure, and it has only gotten better. There seems to be a complete misinformation campaign that is pushing this idea that the USA simply isn't suitable for EVs, and EV drivers just have no idea what all the other people are talking about and just get about their daily lives.

        Your excuse is lame, pick the next one down from

  • Fuck ICE! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Sorry, couldn't resist.

  • Most of the world isn’t wedded to ICE (Score:5, Interesting)

    by shilly ( 142940 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @06:45PM (#66371360)

    It can often feel like everyone is really invested in ICE vs EV culture wars. But that’s a very Anglo perspective on things. There’s tons of noisy comment in the Anglosphere, a fair amount in non-Anglo European countries (eg Germany, Italy) and in Japan. Outside that, people in SE Asia, Africa and S America largely don’t give a shit. They are not invested in ICE as a part of their soul. They are interested in buying cheap cars (and two and three wheelers) that meet their needs, which include low running costs. And if they can get a cheap EV that delivers those low running costs and charging is relatively feasible, they are not going to start banging on about a “lack of soul” or “microwave on wheels”. And the upfront costs are rapidly reaching parity too.

    There was a time when GM etc understood what it took to win in, say Colombia or Thailand. Not so much any more. Which is why they sold their factory in Thailand in 2020 to GWM (natch) and shut in Colombia in 2024. And it’s why new car sales looked like this in the following markets in 2025:
    Vietnam: nearly 40%
    Thailand: Nearly 25%.
    Indonesia: 15%, having more than doubled in a year.
    Uruguay: Nearly 30%.
    Costa Rica: 17%.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      EV also decouple them from oil prices and they can make electricity themselves with cheap solar panels.

      For China it's also about buying domestic goods and supporting Chinese businesses. Many people are already familiar with batteries due to mopeds too, which doubtless reduces the range anxiety a lot. It seems to take people who are used to fossil fuel vehicles longer to get over it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shilly ( 142940 )

        Yes. If you’re in sub-Saharan Africa, an e-bike or EV moped plus a slightly larger-than-African-average domestic solar+BESS setup is a great path to independence. 80% of the world’s population lives in high insolation areas, and most of them are in the developing world.

  • The 49% milestone depends on putting conventional hybrids in a seperate bucket, even though gasoline is still what you put into them. I'm all for using less fuel, and 17% battery-electric is a meaningful chunk of the market, but someone buying a hybrid instead of a plain gasoline car hasn't left gasoline behind. The article explains that clearly enough, which makes the victory lap at the end a bit odd. It even reports Chinese BEV sales down 3%, then says declines are "only in the US." If we're going to comp

    • Re:Still burns gasoline (Score:4, Informative)

      by shilly ( 142940 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @07:32PM (#66371400)

      I agree, especially when the story is plenty positive enough anyway: In 2019, only Norway had EVs accounting for a majority of new car sales. In 2020, there were two countries where this was true. In 2021, still two. In 2022, three. In 2023, five. In 2024, five. And in 2025, nine: Ethiopia, Norway, Denmark, Nepal, Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and China. In 2026, they’re likely to be joined by Singapore and Vietnam, and in 2027 by Belgium and Portugal, among others. Several of these markets have seen EV shares grow from 10% in 2023, so it’s been very fast. If we look at the three wheeler rather than car market, India is already there as well. The important question is when do Germany, the UK, France and Australia get there. Japan and the US will lag way behind, for obvious reasons.

    • The 49% milestone depends on putting conventional hybrids in a seperate bucket, even though gasoline is still what you put into them.

      indeed. ofc it depends on the actual use, but hybrids are more expensive, come with smaller battery, include double mechanic and thus require double the maintenance, all of which doesn't make much sense unless someone absolutely needs to keep burning fuel with enough regularity for whatever reason. they are a different category, but it would make more sense to consider them combustion than electric cars.

      • require double the maintenance

        Found the idiot that got scammed into changing his battery fluids?

        You're going to have to explain because hybrids are everywhere and nobody has that problem. There's nothing you do differently to maintain a Prius vs a Corolla for example. Over ten years it might go from 55mpg to 50 as the battery ages. Where do you get double from.

        • Hybrids are only 18% more efficient in the real world. On a long drive you can actually use more gas.

        • You're going to have to explain because

          really? do i need to explain to someone who misses the point and just picks out a tangential (and maybe unfortunate) idiom that he takes literally and deliberately misunderstands to go off on an unrelated rant with (apparently) the sole intention of venting frustration by throwing around derision at internet strangers?

          i don't think so.

          what i'm going to explain is that my first impression was that you were a hater (i've grown a few around here) or just got triggered because you happen to own a hybrid. howeve

  • The USA officially still uses imperial units, despite most local industries moving to metric, 15 years, or more, ago. When the rest of the world is making metric parts, the USA is forced to jump on the bandwagon, or go without. We see the same thing here: ICE vehicles are popular because the US government is manipulating the market.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Malc ( 1751 )

      Imperial units only in name, a lot of the time. The US gallon is tiny, as is the US pint. US tons are light too. These are not Imperial units.

  • I wonder if there is an inverse relationship between prevelance of EVs in a country, and the likelyhood of that country to stage public executions...

    (I'm saying this in a light-hearted manner, but with the hope that it is nevertheless thought-provoking)

  • It grows fast everywhere (Score:5, Informative)

    by SoftwareArtist ( 1472499 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @08:46PM (#66371474)

    Once the EV market share reaches a certain level, it tends to explode. You see the same pattern repeated across a lot of very different countries.

    Norway [statbase.org] led the world. Their EV market share hit 15% in 2014. Three years later, it was up to 39%.

    Iceland [statbase.org] was a few years behind. They reached 14% in 2017 and three years after that were at 52%.

    China [statbase.org] followed exactly the same pattern. They reached 15% in 2021, and three years later had reached 48%.

    Vietnam [statbase.org] grew even faster. They were only at 10% in 2023, but had already reached 40% in 2025.

    Once a country reaches about 10-15% market share for EVs, it tends to explode in just a few years. In this list of 55 countries [statbase.org], 31 have EV market share of at least 15%, and 10 more have at least 10%. Expect most of those countries to pass 50% within just a few years.

    • Re:It grows fast everywhere (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday October 12, 2026 @05:29AM (#66371910) Homepage Journal

      It's the same story everywhere.

      EVs arrive. Media scaremongers and prints lots of articles about how the range is inadequate, the chargers are all broken, the slightest scratch results in them being written off, can't get spare parts...

      Then enough people get them that everyone else starts to realize the truth and become interested, because the advantages and convenience are huge.

      • The difference is trains. I would hazard a guess that people in Sweden are not driving five days across the country, they take a train and leaving the car at home.

        • Whereas in the USA, lots of people drive for five days across the country? I know non US folks get criticised for having a weird view of what USA is like, but is it really any wonder?

          https://upgradedpoints.com/new... [upgradedpoints.com]

          This looks higher than UK attitudes to driving I agree.

          I don't have the stamina for long drives without breaks, and I have kids, so I don't personally see the need for a 400+ miles range EV. The number of stops I make on a typical 250 miles trip remains one, just as it was with an ICE car, and

    • Once the EV market share reaches a certain level, it tends to explode.

      You can only believe so much FUD and bullshit before you look around you, see everything driving an EV like it's a normal car or something, and start questioning whether you were wrong and an EV is also suitable for you. Either that or you channel your inner Principle Skinner "Am I out of touch? No it's the kids who are wrong."

  • Well, duh (Score:4)

    by 0123456 ( 636235 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @10:29PM (#66371574)

    We're looking for a new car. Two we're considering are the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Forester.

    You can't buy a non-hybrid RAV4 any more and apparently pretty much all 2027 Foresters will be hybrid. The RAV4 is one of the most popular new vehicles in the US so everyone buying one will be getting a hybrid whether they want it or not (and paying a few extra thousand dollars whether they want it or not).

    So to a large extent this is just showing that manufacturers aren't offering the option of an ICE car any more. Hybrids probably have higher profit margins.

    • Hybrids *are* ICE. The wording of the article and summary is ridiculous:

      "Gas cars are now a minority of the world's new car sales," reports Electrek." "Gasoline-only vehicles made up 49%"

      All HEV or "hybrid" vehicles contain an ICE (internal combustion vehicle) and use gas, and are, therefore, "gas cars". And it is true that there are tons of HEV's being offered now.

    • Re:Well, duh (Score:4, Informative)

      by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Monday October 12, 2026 @01:15AM (#66371714)

      Companies like Toyota and Subaru are doubling down on hybrids because hybrids are the only way they can meet the ever stricter emissions and fuel economy standards found in a large chunk of the world.

      • Also having just found out about it myself... oh wow the Toyota hybrid transmission is really really neat. simpler and probably more reliable than he conventional one.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Also because the Japanese invested heavily in hybrid technology and do not want to abandon it.

        There was a news report about it years ago on NHK. It's not just Toyota that wants to get every bit of value out of its hybrid R&D, it's that all their suppliers for the drivetrain want to as well. If they switched completely to EV then many of those suppliers would have little to offer. The complex gearbox, the fuel management, the engine block, the alternator, the exhaust system, it all goes away.

        Even their d

    • The RAV4 is one of the most popular new vehicles in the US so everyone buying one will be getting a hybrid whether they want it or not (and paying a few extra thousand dollars whether they want it or not).

      Why would you want to buy a substantially less efficient vehicle (also with lower power)? Are you enjoying Trump's high fuel prices?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by backslashdot ( 95548 )

      Buy a Tesla instead. Full self-driving is amazing.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's a shame your government banned all the much better EV models in the crossover segment. You are going to have to maintain that ICE for years.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )

      Two we're considering are the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Forester.

      May I suggest you consider the Rav4 Prime, which is the plug-in hybrid version? It has enough all-electric range for a daily commute, but several hundred miles of total range. Plus, because it has enough electric power for highway driving, combined with the ICE, it has crazy peak power and a higher towing capacity than a stock Rav4.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      The RAV4 hybrid is way more fuel efficient though, easily breaking even vs the non-hybrid engine and transmission. The hybrid is a way simpler transmission. Toyota has been doing this for decades and it works great and customers actually want it.

  • Does "gas" include diesel? Diesel at least used to be very popular in Europe.

  • I'm so confused. I was told by a bunch of Slashdotters that EVs will never work because of cold, range, expense, resale value, maintenance, gremlins, etc...

  • On another note, we got back to the DC metro area yesterday from Chicago in our plug-in hybrid minivan. Last gas was around Cambridge, OH, and no battery charge. Got home, about 315 mi, coming through the mountains... with half a tank of gas left, and the panel tells me 115 mi of that was on (regenerated) electric.

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