Posted on 16 May 2025
Electric vehicle sales have been “surprisingly strong” in Q1, increasing 35% year-on-year globally, Kallanish learns from data consultancy EV Volumes.
Despite industry turbulence, passenger battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) gained a market share of 20.3% in the period. Viktor Irle, founder of EV Volumes, tells the Oxford Battery Metals Lectureson on Thursday that the quarter seasonally experiences lower EV sales.
He estimates that global annual EV sales are projected to reach 65 million by 2035, led by the Chinese market, followed by Europe and North America. By 2032, half of the new cars sold globally will have a plug, reaching a majority by 2040.
Currently, EVs still account for 3-4% of global vehicles in operation. The company says that there are 65m electrified light vehicles on the road, out of a total of 1.3 billion units.
BYD is now the most dominant BEV brand, outpacing Tesla. The US carmaker, the second most popular EV brand in terms of sales, has been losing market share due to its ageing model line-up and lack of affordable models – although it has promised one will be launched this year. Tesla is expected to catch up with BYD through the end of the decade, but the Chinese giant will remain the top seller by 2030, according to Irle.
The rising EV adoption is driving “incredible growth” in demand for batteries, he adds. EV Volumes expects battery demand to reach 1 terawatt-hour in China in 2029, and 5 TWh globally in 2035. BYD, Tesla, and VW Group will be the largest consumers of batteries through 2030.
In Q1, battery deployment in BEVs and PHEVs rose 25% y-o-y to 216 gigawatt-hours, according to the company. Last year, global power battery installations rose 18% to 871 GWh.
Source:Kallanish
