Lesu Car Market, Global Electric Car Sales Still Growing

Electric cars are connected to a charging device. Global sales of electric cars continue to grow even though the world automotive market weakened in the first half of 2026. Illustration photo: Pexels.

JAKARTA - The global automotive market is weakening, but sales of electric cars are still growing. Electric cars also take a larger share of total global car sales in the first half of 2026.

Anadolu Agency, quoted Friday, July 31, reported that the International Energy Agency said electric car sales rose again in the second quarter of 2026. Sales grew 4 percent compared to the same period last year.

The increase comes at a time when global car sales have actually fallen by around 5 percent over the first six months of the year. The decline was mainly in China and the United States.

Electric cars account for 24 percent of all car sales in the world in the first half of 2026.

The International Energy Agency projects global sales of electric cars to grow 10 percent this year. If the projection is achieved, electric cars will account for 29 percent of total global car sales.

China is an important part of this trend. When domestic demand fell, car exports from the country actually jumped 65 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2026.

The increase in exports helped local manufacturers withstand pressure from weakening demand in the domestic market.

Electric car deliveries from China jumped more than 120 percent in the same period. The surge completely offset domestic sales declines.

Chinese manufacturers benefit from integrated supply chains and strong capabilities in the battery sector. These two things make their production costs much lower.

Anadolu said the advantage allows Chinese companies to produce battery-based electric cars about 35 percent cheaper than their competitors in advanced economies.

Battery-based electric cars are vehicles that rely entirely on batteries as a source of power.