European nations are leading the way in new Electric Vehicle (EV) sales. This is despite the emergence of Mainland China as the biggest market for EVs.

According to data presented by Trading Platforms, 15 European countries had the highest share of plug-in EVs in new passenger car sales in 2020 – Norway had the highest at 75%.

Norway charged up

Electric Vehicles have become more popular in recent times, accounting for 4.2% of the world’s total light-vehicle sales in 2020 compared to just 2.5% in 2019. Only eight countries achieved an EV share of 5% or higher in 2019, but in 2020 13 countries were able to cross the 10% mark of new light-vehicle sales.

Norway leads all nations by a wide margin with an incredible 74.8% plug-in EV share of new passenger car sales in 2020. Iceland was a distant second at 45% making them the only other country to have an EV share that accounted for more than a third of its total new light-vehicle sales in 2020.

 

 

Europe plugs in

The top 15 countries with the highest EV share of new light-vehicle sales in 2020 were all European. China is the first country outside of Europe to feature on the rankings with 6.2%, for the 16th highest share in the world, despite being the largest market for EVs in terms of unit sales. Notably, the USA is well below the top nations at just 2.3%

Rex Pascual, Editor at Trading Platforms, commented on the rise of Europe’’s EV market;

“EV had a strong 2020 despite the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. Many rich European nations effectively use policies such as tax exemptions and subsidies to encourage the purchase of EVs, making the continent a robust emerging market in the ever going EV industry.”