If you’ve been wondering just how far electric vehicles have come, the answer depends entirely on where you’re standing. In some countries, gas-powered cars are basically an endangered species. In others, EVs still make up a small sliver of what’s rolling off dealer lots. Here’s a snapshot of where things stand right now.

The quick version

Country	Share of new car sales that are electric	What that looks like
🇳🇴 Norway	98.7%	Basically all-electric
🇨🇳 China	52.4%*	More than half
🇫🇷 France	29%	Nearly 1 in 3
🌍 Global average	29%	Nearly 1 in 3
🇬🇧 UK	25.6%	About 1 in 4
🇩🇪 Germany	~25%	About 1 in 4
🇰🇷 South Korea	~20%	1 in 5
🇺🇸 USA	5.7%	About 1 in 18
🇯🇵 Japan	~3%	Still rare

*China’s figure includes plug-in hybrids alongside fully electric cars — more on that below.

Norway isn’t just leading, it’s basically finished

Norway registered 13,451 new cars in August 2026, and 98.7% of them were battery-electric. That’s not a typo. Petrol and diesel cars have essentially disappeared from Norwegian dealer lots — the country’s new-car market is, for all practical purposes, fully electric. It got there through years of consistent tax policy that made EVs the cheaper, easier choice for ordinary buyers, not through any single dramatic push.

China leads on volume, but the numbers need a footnote

China’s electric vehicle market is enormous, and by August 2026 electric vehicles made up 60.6% of all new car sales in a single month — a new record. Over the first eight months of the year, that settled at 52.4%. The one thing worth knowing: China counts plug-in hybrids alongside fully electric cars in that number. Purely battery-electric vehicles make up roughly two-thirds of that total, putting China’s “pure EV” share closer to 35% — still a lot of cars, just a different number than the headline.

Europe: solidly in “nearly a third” territory

France, the UK, and Germany have all settled into a similar range this year, somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of new cars sold.

• France hit 29% year-to-date, with a single-month record of 35% in July.
• The UK sits at 25.6% year-to-date, spiking to nearly 30% in August.
• Germany is around 25%, boosted by a new government subsidy that’s made electric cars meaningfully cheaper for buyers this year.

None of these countries are anywhere near Norway’s level, but the trend line in all three is clearly upward.

South Korea: catching up fast

South Korea crossed the 20% mark for pure electric vehicles by early 2026, more than triple its share from just a couple of years ago. If you count hybrids too, “eco-friendly” vehicles made up more than half of all new cars sold in the country for the first time ever this year.

The United States: actually going backward

Here’s the surprising one. American EV sales didn’t just slow down in 2026 — they dropped sharply, falling nearly 47% year-over-year in August alone, down to just 5.7% of new car sales. The reason isn’t mysterious: the $7,500 federal tax credit that had been nudging buyers toward EVs expired in September 2025, and demand cooled off almost immediately once that discount disappeared. It’s a pretty clean example of how much government incentives can shape a market — take them away, and buyers pull back fast.

Japan: the quiet outlier

Despite being one of the world’s most advanced car-making nations, Japan’s fully-electric share sits at just around 3% — and that’s actually a record high for the country. Japanese buyers have overwhelmingly preferred traditional hybrid cars (the kind that don’t plug in) over full EVs, and that preference shows no sign of changing quickly.

The big picture

Globally, the International Energy Agency expects electric cars to make up about 29% of all new car sales in 2026 — essentially matching where France and the UK already sit. But that global average is hiding a much bigger story: some countries have already finished their transition to electric, while others — including the world’s largest car market, the US — are barely getting started, or in America’s case, briefly stepping back.

If there’s one lesson in all of this, it’s that EV adoption isn’t really a technology story at this point. It’s a policy story. The countries at the top of this list didn’t get there by accident — years of steady tax incentives and subsidies did the heavy lifting. And the one country that just saw its numbers fall off a cliff proves the same rule works in reverse.

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Data compiled from national auto industry associations (SMMT, KBA, PFA/AAA, CAAM, KAMA, JADA) and Cox Automotive/Kelley Blue Book, current as of September 2026.