Electric cars swept the world last year, everywhere except the U.S.
Global EV sales grew 20% in 2025 to exceed 20 million, with one in four new cars sold worldwide now electric, according to th International Energy Agency’s annual outlook, released on May 20.
EV sales in the U.S., though, fell 2% last year, according to Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book, the primary tracker of auto sales in the country.
Rising fuel costs worldwide pushed consumers toward EVs at record rates. Gasoline prices in the U.S, too, rose sharply, topping $4 a gallon in April. But consumers had fewer EV options, especially in the affordable car category. The Chinese cars that have spurred EV growth in much of the world attract 100% tariffs in the U.S., which also levies a separate 25% duty on all imported vehicles.
“It is a supply-structure problem, rather than a gas-price problem,” Egor Prokhodtsev, principal research analyst for transportation and mobility at research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, told Rest of World. “Removing the subsidy simply made this structural issue impossible to ignore.”
