Two different measures of adoption
More than 17 million electric cars were sold in 2024, taking their share of new global car sales above 20%, according to the IEA. But at year-end, electric cars accounted for about 4% of the passenger-car fleet.
Sales measure what buyers chose during one year. Fleet share measures all the cars still in use, including older vehicles. They answer different questions.
What counts as electric?
The IEA includes battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Its figures should not be read as battery-only adoption. The agency put the electric fleet at almost 58 million cars at the end of 2024.
For the chart, the IEA's approximate 4% electric share is paired with a calculated 96% remainder. The small highlighted group makes the gap between a fast-changing sales market and a much larger existing fleet easy to see.
