Electric vehicle sales are set to record the slowest annual growth since the pandemic amid a contraction in the U.S. market and a slowdown in Chinese demand, The Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing data from research firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
EV sales globally could jump 13% to 24M in 2026, down from an estimated 22% rise last year, as U.S. sales are expected to drop 29% to 1.1M after the federal EV tax credit, which expanded the American market to a record 1.5M sales last year, expired in September.
Benchmark’s data, which includes full EVs as well as plug-in hybrids, further suggests that sales in Europe could jump 14% to 4.9M after an estimated 33% rise in 2025. Meanwhile, in China, the largest EV market, sales are expected to hit 15.5M compared to 13.3M last year.
The modest global outlook follows years of red-hot EV demand worldwide, driven by Chinese automakers such as BYD (BYDDF) (BYDDY), which offer more affordable options compared to European and U.S. companies.
While Benchmark’s projection for China indicates double-digit growth, it is still below the EV growth the country recorded over a five-year period until 2025, when sales climbed to more than 13M from about 1.1M.
According to data released by BYD (BYDDF) and Tesla (TSLA) this week, the Chinese automaker has dethroned the Elon Musk-led company as the world’s largest EV maker in 2025.
Leading EV makers: Tesla (TSLA), BYD (BYDDF) (BYDDY), General Motors (GM), Hyundai (HYMTF), Ford Motor (F), BMW (BMWKY), Volkswagen (VWAGY), Nissan (NSANY), Rivian Automotive (RIVN), and Toyota (TM), Lucid Group (LCID), NIO (NIO), XPeng (XPEV) (XPNGF), Geely (GELYF) (GELHY), Xiaomi (XIACF) (XIACY), Li Auto (LI), Chery Automobile (CRAUY)