ICCT publishes new reports on global progress in road transport's electric transition
Sat 05 September 2026
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The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has published the latest in a series of reports providing detailed statistics on global progress in the introduction of electric vehicles. The reports cover cars and vans, trucks, buses as well as two- and three-wheeler vehicles.
ICCT's latest report on global uptake of electric trucks and buses shows that electric vehicles accounted for nearly 14% of sales in 2025. Sales nearly doubled globally in 2025 for the second consecutive year, exceeding half a million, driven largely by China’s electric truck sales. Sales accelerated across major markets with the European Union, India, Brazil, and the UK recording a double-digit increase, fuelled mostly by electric bus expansion, while the United States saw modest growth of about 2% despite regulatory rollbacks.
China accounted for nearly 90% of global electric truck and bus sales with particularly impressive growth in the medium and heavy truck segments where sales have more than quintupled over two years. Nearly 30% of China’s heavy truck sales were fully electric in 2025. Declining battery costs and strong local supporting policies have helped to advance the electrification according to a separate study by the ICCT.
The report's lead author Shiyue Mao, said: “In a sector traditionally defined by low profit margins, the long-term economic case for battery electric trucks is becoming clear, and China offers lessons to draw from. Battery electric trucks offer operational cost advantages which have made the case for truck electrification very compelling.”
In the light duty sector, ICCT's work shows that nearly three in ten new cars sold in Europe (including the EU, Norway, and Iceland) were fully electric in August 2026. This represent an increase of five percentage points from the previous month. The two largest markets, Germany and France, drove most of the growth with France reaching a record 38% share and Germany matching its previous record of 33%.
Overall, European sales of battery electric cars from January to August increased by 41% compared with the same period in 2025. The August jump brings the average market share for January to August 2026 to 23%, six percentage-point rise year over year.
From January to August, Germany and France recorded significant increases compared with the same period in 2025, reaching market shares of 27% (+9 p.p.) and 30% (+12 p.p.), respectively.
Peter Mock, ICCT Europe Director, said: “August market data is good news for governments and carmakers across Europe. Consumers are responding to new and better electric models in the market and opting for a technology that can deliver lower energy costs amid the current oil crisis. The fact that carmakers’ pools are already virtually compliant with their next CO2 target is a sign that current European car regulations are also working even better than expected”.
The first edition of ICCT's market report for two- and three-wheelers (2W and 3W) shows that global sales of two-wheeler vehicles increased by 5% between 2024 to 2025, reaching roughly 65 million vehicles sold worldwide last year. Sales of electric 2Ws saw an increase of 17%, more than three times the growth rate of the overall 2W market.
In 2025, China had the largest electric 2W (e2W) market, with more than 7.2 million vehicles sold, followed by India and Vietnam.
The 2W and e2W markets in Europe and the Americas are relatively small compared with those in other regions.
India dominates global markets for 3W and e3W vehicles with about 2.1m vehicles sold last year. Almost all the growth between 2024 and 2025 was in electric three-wheelers.
Related News: Richard Bruce was recently named as ICCT's new Chief Executive Officer. Richard most recently served as Director of the United Kingdom’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), where he led national efforts to accelerate the transition to clean transportation.
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