Battery-Electric Reality Check Demonstrates That Even in China, a Supermajority of New Vehicle Shoppers Opt Not To Buy an EV and Here Are the Facts By Vehicle Type and Market

If you follow automotive “news,” you are sure to see amazing battery-electric vehicle headlines on a daily basis. New battery tech just around the corner, faster chargers, hard to believe low-low prices, and most common of all, market share projections that make it seem like everyone is buying an EV all over the world. The facts are somewhat different than these forecasts, projections, and wishful thinking articles. Let’s look closely at market share for EVs in every major market to get a sense of what is actually happening right now, rather than in some distant, rosy future. 

First, let’s define a key term. Electric vehicle fundamentalists blow a gasket anytime anyone uses the terms “EV,” or “Electric Vehicle” to mean anything other than battery-electric or battery-only vehicles. We’ll adopt their nomenclature in this story to keep things simple. Plug-in hybrid-electric, extended-range-electric, and fuel-cell-electric are all types of EVs in our book, but we’ll bow to the EV word Karens for this article, since it is much easier to illustrate the point with one common definition for EV.

China – 72% of New Car Buyers Opt Not to Buy an EV
In the Chinese vehicle market, only 28% of new car purchases are battery-electric vehicles. Many of them are smaller than a U.S.-style subcompact, but we’ll count them in anyway. With only 28% buying BEVs, a clear supermajority opt for vehicles with other powertrain technologies. Does that jive with what you imagined after being pummeled with stories about BYD’s “dominance?” 

Roughly half of all the vehicles purchased in China have no plug at all. 15% are plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (think Jeep Wrangler 4Xe) and about 6% are EREVs (think Chevy Volt). All the rest are hybrids and internal combustion-powered vehicles of one type or another. Our source is McKinsey.

California – 74% of Buyers Don’t Buy an EV
If China surprised you, this one may be almost stunning. In California, the state leading the charge in the U.S., and solidly controlled by EV proponents, about three out of four buyers opt not to drive home in a new EV. We’ve covered this topic in detail in the past, and our data source is the Governor of California.

UK Market – Do you count the UK as part of Europe? If so, cool, if not, know that roughly 80% of UK buyers don’t buy a BEV. This market is hard to follow because the local folks include the PHEVs and EREVs in their overall EV count. 

Europe (Excluding Europe’s Most Populous City) – 86% of Buyers Don’t Buy a BEV
In the American automotive media, we often hear comparisons and contrasts with “Europe,” with Europe having a much greater adoption rate than the U.S. That’s not true in many ways. In what most publications call Europe, the total BEV market share is just 14%, so about half the rate of California’s cities. McKinsey also has the data for Europe. 

Europe’s Largest Most Populous City – Istanbul – 90% of Shoppers Don’t Buy a BEV
Depending on who you ask, Istanbul is either “Europe’s largest city” or “Europe’s most populous city.” Go there, and your eyes will be opened. The city is a mix of old, new, East, West, Islamic, and secular. What’s not in question is that over 10 million people reside on the Western side of the city, which is squarely in Europe. Another five to ten are on the Eastern side, depending on where you draw an imaginary line. Many commute back and forth daily. But not in battery-electric vehicles of the type we imagine. Neighborhood EVs are all over the place, and legit EVs are also around in smaller numbers. Market share estimates vary, with one pegging the EV share in 2024 at about 10%. The data are harder to follow in this sub-market. I visit Turkey every year, and I see hardly any EVs other than tiny supercompact runabouts. Hybrids are everywhere. 

U.S. Market – 93% of Shoppers Don’t Buy a BEV
In America, good sources of EV delivery data are easy to find, except that Tesla, which owns about 45% market share of American BEVs, does not report its models by market. So, sources do some math or they use DMV data. In any case, Cox Automotive found in its most recent number crunching session that only about 7.5% of Americans bought a BEV in Q1 2025. This is lower than the rate over the prior six-month period, and roughly identical to Q1 2023. Tease out the good news however you like, but EV adoption in America stalled at this same point more than two years back. 

Our Opinion of Battery-Electric Vehicles
Torque News’s reporting and testing staff overwhelmingly provide positive reviews of EVs. We also test home chargers. You’ll have to dig hard to find a review of an EV or EV product we didn’t love. Here’s a quick list of some reviews you can check out to see our opinions on the products themselves. 

2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – Best 4-Door Sports/Muscle Car

2025 Nissan Leaf – America’s Best Second Car

We Drive and Compare the Tesla Model Y vs. Ford Mustang Mach-E – You Pick A Winner

Why driving the Tesla Model S makes older reviews meaningless

Pandering vs. Reporting
Please don’t assume that because we offer factual reporting on the market share of EVs that we are anti-EV in any way. Some of us just don’t pander or advocate for EV adoption. Instead, we report and analyze what has happened. If you are looking for a publication that has headlines like “New EV will be $25K” or “New battery will charge faster than a gas car can be filled,” you won’t have any difficulty finding those types of fantasy stories online. 

Summary – A Supermajority of Global Buyers Will Opt Not To Buy a Battery-Electric Vehicle In 2025
As you can see, the market data is clear. In every global or more focused local market, a supermajority of car shoppers decide not to buy a battery-electric vehicle. They buy something else instead. Perhaps a different type of green electric vehicle, perhaps a conventionally-powered vehicle. Either way, not a BEV. Will this change in 2025?

Will EV market share change significantly by 2030?

Please provide us with your answer and analysis in the comments below. 

Image shows a BYD car show display courtesy of BYD media support. 

John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John’s by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.