One in Four New Cars Is Electric…But ICE Vehicles Aren’t Going Anywhere

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Electric vehicles (EVs) are no longer a fringe product. According to a recent analysis by energy think‑tank Ember, more than one in four new cars sold globally in 2025 is electric. It’s a staggering milestone for a market that barely registered a decade ago.

Yet for all the buzz about electrification, internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles — cars powered by petrol, diesel or hybrids — still dominate the world’s roads and new car purchases. That dominance matters because transportation remains one of the largest sources of fossil fuel use and CO₂ emissions, meaning any shift away from ICE has enormous implications for climate goals.

Here’s what the latest data shows:

• EVs now make up more than 25% of global new car sales in 2025 — a dramatic rise from just over 20% in 2024 and virtually nothing a decade earlier.
• Global EV sales through November 2025 reached about 18.5 million units, up roughly 21% year‑on‑year. China alone accounted for 11.6 million of those.
• In many emerging markets — especially in Southeast Asia and Latin America — EV adoption is outpacing older markets like the U.S. and parts of Europe. Singapore and Vietnam, for example, have reached around 40% EV share, and Indonesia has surpassed the United States with about 15% EV share.

Despite these gains, EVs (even at 25% global share) are still far from displacing ICE vehicles. The majority of new cars bought this year are still powered by petrol, diesel, or conventional hybrids. That means the vast majority of cars on the road will continue to burn fossil fuels for years to come. This matters because even if new sales lean more electric, the worldwide fleet of vehicles takes years (often a decade or more) to fully replace old models. So, ICE vehicles will remain the majority on the road far beyond 2030.

In the U.K., the ruling Conservative Party recently proposed scuttling the planned 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and repealing strict EV mandates. The move is seen as potentially slowing EV adoption.

European regulators are easing the 2035 phase‑out of ICE sales, now allowing up to 10% of new cars to still use combustion engines even after that deadline. This alone signals political and industry discomfort with a rapid transition.

These policy reversals highlight something important: EV adoption is not guaranteed by technology alone. It still depends heavily on government mandates, subsidies, and consumer incentives, and those levers are under intense political debate in many advanced economies.

One of the most striking patterns in the data is China’s dominance in the EV space. China has been the largest EV market for several years, responsible for more than half of global EV sales in recent reports — roughly 11 million-plus EVs sold annually.

Meanwhile, North America’s EV sales growth has slowed or even declined in 2025, in part due to the end of U.S. tax credits and shifting federal policies.

That imbalance underlines the fact that, even as EV adoption accelerates, the global automobile market is not uniform. Some regions are embracing electrification faster than others, and in many places, cost, infrastructure, policy uncertainty, and consumer preference keep ICE vehicles competitive or preferable.

Analysts agree that EV share will continue growing; potentially hitting 40% global market share by 2030, driven by falling battery costs, broader model availability, and tighter emissions standards.

But for the average driver today, whether in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, or the Americas, ICE cars still represent the majority of road traffic and new purchases. The EV revolution is real, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Fossil‑fueled engines aren’t going away anytime soon, and how quickly they fade will depend as much on politics, prices and infrastructure as on battery chemistry and electric motors.