Global Electric Car Sales Plunge 11 Percent in February 2026

Geely EX5 electric car. (Photo: Geely)

JAKARTA - Global sales of electric vehicles fell in February 2026. This weakness was mainly triggered by a decline in demand in a number of major markets, with China being the largest contributor to the decline.

Quoted from The Economic Times, Monday, March 16, the consulting agency Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) reported that global electric vehicle sales fell 11 percent year-on-year in February.

The decline was largely due to a slump in sales in China. As the world's largest electric vehicle market, the country recorded the most significant decline since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

BMI noted that sales of battery-based electric and plug-in hybrid cars in China in February fell 32 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, with total sales below 500,000 units.

This figure is also in line with a report from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers which showed that overall car sales in the country fell 34 percent in the same month. BMI Data Manager Charles Lester said consumers are now more sensitive to the price of electric vehicles.

Overall, global sales of electric vehicles in the last two months to February were recorded at just over one million units. This figure is the lowest level since the same period in 2024.

In North America, the electric vehicle market has also contracted. Sales in the region fell 35 percent to less than 90,000 units in February. This decline was the fifth in a row after the end of the electric vehicle tax incentive program in the United States in September last year.

In addition, the policy of the United States government under President Donald Trump who proposed easing carbon emission standards also affected the demand for electric vehicles in the region.

The combination of these policies and the weakening of global demand has led a number of automotive manufacturers with a large exposure in the United States market to record asset value declines of more than US$70 billion.

On the other hand, the electric vehicle market in Europe is still showing positive growth. Sales of electric vehicles in the region increased 21 percent in February, although the pace was not as high as most of the previous year's period.

Meanwhile, other regions of the world recorded much higher growth. Electric vehicle sales increased by 78 percent to exceed 180,000 units, driven by the aggressive expansion of Chinese electric car manufacturers into Asian, Australian and European markets amid increasingly fierce competition in their domestic markets.