To decarbonize road transport, the world must move away from petrol and diesel cars towards electric vehicles and other forms of low-carbon transport.
This transition has already started. In fact, global sales of combustion engine cars are well past their peak and are now falling.
As you can see in the chart, global sales peaked in 2017.
This is calculated based on data from the International Energy Agency. Bloomberg New Energy Finance also estimated this peak occurred around that time.
Sales of electric cars, on the other hand, are growing quickly. They more than doubled in the three years from 2022 to 2025.
by ourworldindata
2 Comments
**Data source:** International Energy Agency [Global EV Outlook](https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2026) (2026)
**Tools used:** OWID-Grapher, Figma
I guess I was expecting the total numbers to be bigger given US new car sales.
Despite only having around 4.1% of world population, somehow the US is buying ~20% of the cars!