Plug-ins now one quarter of new car sales

 From CleanTechnica

Plugin vehicle registrations were up 9% year over year (YoY) in April, ending the month at around 1.6 million units. Interestingly, BEVs (+19% YoY) and PHEVs (-9% YoY) behaved very differently, with pure electrics back to double-digit growth while plugin hybrids remained in the red. This is the first time since 2019 that PHEVs remained in the red for four consecutive months.

This meant that, while the plugin YTD numbers are barely positive (+1% YoY), that is solely due to the PHEV blues (-10% YoY), because BEVs are already on the way back to normal (+7%).

And the different dynamics between pure electrics and plugin hybrids are reflected in the BEV vs. PHEV share of plugin sales — in April, BEVs represented 72% of all plugin sales, or about 1.15 million units, one of the best results of the past few years. That led the YTD breakdown to be 70% vs. 30% in favour of pure electrics, which is touching the ceiling of BEV share of the past 12 years. Since 2014, BEVs have floated between 70% and 50% of the total plugin share.

With numbers out of the red zone, it is undeniable that globally, this year started slow. But there is one easy explanation for this — incentives. Or the end of them.

The end of US incentives last October, added to the partial removal of incentives in China at the end of 2025, had an expected impact, as these are the 3rd and 1st largest EV markets, respectively.

Actually, if we remove China and the USA from the tally, EVs jumped 50% YoY globally in April, with BEVs surging +63% YoY, their highest growth rate since June 2023.

Funny enough, PHEVs are also underperforming in this metric, as the 23% PHEV growth rate in April, excluding China and the USA, is the lowest for the technology in over a year. It is starting to look like PHEVs’ current slowdown is more structural than expected….

Just because certain media-friendly markets are down, that doesn’t mean that all markets are down.

Here are a few examples of fast growing markets:

• BEVs jumped 157% in Australia, to 16% share;
• In Italy, BEVs surged +99% YoY, bringing their share to 9%;
• In Argentina, BEVs experienced exponential growth, going from less than 100 units in April 2025 to over 1.300 units last month;
• As for Ireland, BEVs doubled their sales to 3,000 units, or 27% share;
• In South Korea, BEVs surged 160% YoY, to 36,000 units, or 24% share;
• In Vietnam, BEVs tripled to 26,000 units, or 43% share;
• As for Japan, BEVs more than doubled their sales YoY, to 7,000 units, or 2% share;
• In Indonesia, EV sales were up 93% to 15,000 units, or 18% share;
• Finally, in Malaysia, BEVs jumped 104% YoY to 6,000 units, or 8% share;

So, Keep Calm and Carry On — the EV revolution is in good health, and with what is happening in the Middle East, ICE vehicle sales are going to melt even faster.

The charts below use CleanTechnica's data, but my seasonal adjustment and trend-fitting.

The slowdown in global sales can be clearly seen, as well as the recent pick-up as the Iran War drives people to buy EVs and PHEVs.