- Global EV sales hit record highs in Q4 2025, but charging infrastructure is scaling far more slowly.
- China and Europe are driving demand, putting the most strain on already uneven public charging networks.
- In key markets like Germany, the number of EVs per public charger has risen sharply, worsening congestion.
It seems the roles are now reversing as electric vehicles are no longer waiting for the demand to catch up. Instead, the infrastructure meant to support it is starting to crack under pressure.
According to PwC, across 40 major markets, battery electric vehicle sales crossed four million units in Q4 2025 for the first time on record. A couple of places really drove that number over the line: China was the powerhouse, selling nearly 3 million of those cars all by itself. Over in Europe, Germany’s EV sales shot up by more than half, and other major markets like France and the UK weren’t far behind.
Because of this, a solid one out of every five new cars sold worldwide last quarter was a fully electric model, which is the second quarter in a row that this mark has been hit. It’s a clear sign that EVs are moving out of the "alternative" lane and into the mainstream. And this wasn't a one-time spike; for the whole year, EV sales jumped a huge 30%.
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China Drove the Numbers, and Changed the Mix
While China was busy selling a staggering 36% of all its new cars as fully electric last quarter, a revolution was underway. The formula for success is changing.
For years, the path to electrification in China ran through plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). They were the perfect bridge for cautious buyers. But last quarter, that bridge started to look a bit empty; PHEV sales there actually fell by 12%.
So, if people aren't buying as many hybrids, what are they buying? The answer is a wave of new, cheap, and cheerful fully electric models. For the mass market, the math just got simple: why pay extra for a car with two complicated powertrains when a more affordable, purpose-built EV does the job?
This is a clear signal that China's EV revolution is entering its next, more mature phase. The early-adopter era is over.
Europe’s Late Acceleration Came All at Once
If China’s market is defining the "what's next" for EVs, Europe showed us what a full-scale rebound looks like. After a year of uncertainty, the continent's biggest car markets all slammed on the accelerator at once.
Europe’s EV story in 2025 flipped from a tale of stalled momentum to one of a decisive surge. This shift was led by Germany, which staged a remarkable comeback. The year before, the market had plunged by 27% after the government cut its generous purchase bonuses, creating a major "subsidy hangover" that made headlines. But by the final quarter of 2025, that slump was firmly in the rearview mirror. German EV sales rocketed up by 56%, proving that the underlying demand for electric cars was stronger than the temporary shock of losing an incentive.
This rebound wasn't confined to Germany; it became a continent-wide trend. In the UK and France, electric cars captured an unprecedented one in every four new cars sold, setting national records. Perhaps most telling was the awakening in Southern Europe. Spain and Italy, often labeled as laggards, saw their EV sales skyrocket by 77% and 44% over the year, finally pushing them into meaningful market share territory.
As EV sales soared, sales of pure internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles across these top five markets crashed by 18% in the fourth quarter. This pushed the share of new gasoline and diesel cars below one-third for the first time in history. In Europe, the conversation is no longer about whether the transition will happen, but about how fast the old world is being replaced.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
Germany Shows What Happens When Infrastructure Lags Demand
Germany offers a clear case study of what happens when EV sales outpace charging expansion.
Since 2017, the number of BEVs on German roads has increased 48-fold. Over the same period, public charging points grew only 24-fold. By 2023, an average of 11 BEVs shared a single public charger, up from four in 2020. Although expansion accelerated from 2024 onwards, the gap remains significant.
The imbalance is geographical as well as numerical. Cities and municipalities with dense charging networks show far higher BEV adoption, while rural and economically weaker regions lag on both counts. This uneven rollout reinforces regional disparities in EV uptake.
Surveys from PwC underline the friction. BEV owners rated charger availability, waiting times, location, and cost as their biggest pain points, the same factors they consider most important. At around 15% utilization, the network is busy enough to frustrate users but not efficient enough to absorb continued growth smoothly.
The U.S. Shows How Policy Can Still Move Markets
The infrastructure gap in Europe creates a natural speed limit for adoption. In the United States last quarter, however, the brakes were applied much more abruptly, by policy.
After consumers rushed to secure federal tax credits in Q3, BEV sales dropped 31% year-on-year in Q4 following the incentives’ expiration at the end of September. The decline was not driven by falling interest but by timing. Demand was pulled forward, then temporarily drained from the market.
The episode underscored how sensitive EV adoption remains to policy support, particularly in markets where charging access and pricing parity are still uneven.
Q4 2025 Shows a Warning
Q4 2025 confirmed that demand is no longer the limiting factor for electric vehicles. Consumers are buying EVs at scale across major markets, driven by falling prices and expanding model choice.
What’s holding the transition back is simpler and harder to fix. Charging infrastructure is expanding, but not fast enough, not evenly enough, and not efficiently enough. Q4 didn’t just set sales records. It revealed the pressure points that will determine whether the next phase of electrification accelerates or stalls.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
