International Energy Agency Predicts 14 Million EV Sales in 2023

Sales of Teslas and other electric vehicles are increasing rapidly throughout the world, last year representing over 10 million units sold globally. With major markets in China, and across Europe and North America, EV sales are expected to jump drastically this year, as predicted by a global agency in a recent analysis.

Above: Tesla vehicles parked in a lot (Image: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX).

The International Energy Agency expects over 14 million EVs to be sold globally in 2023, which would account for about 18 percent of total car sales for the full year, as reported by CNET. The figure would represent a 35 percent increase year over year, accounting for as much as 18 percent of total car sales in 2023.

In the first quarter of 2023 alone, more than 2.3 million EVs were sold globally, marking an increase of about 25 percent from the same period in 2022. Currently, the IEA expects EV sales to further accelerate in the second half of the year. The agency also thinks that federal and state EV tax credits, as well as increased oil prices, could accelerate EV sales even further.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol noted that EVs remain the global energy economy’s main driver at the moment, though the agency points out that passenger cars won’t be the only product to push transportation into a sustainable future.

"Electric vehicles are one of the driving forces in the new global energy economy that is rapidly emerging — and they are bringing about a historic transformation of the car manufacturing industry worldwide," Birol said in a statement. "Cars are just the first wave. Electric buses and trucks will follow soon."

Above: Global Electric Vehicle Sales Set To Surge In 2023 (Video: CNET / YouTube).

In the U.S., EVs only reached a market share of 8 percent in 2022, though the figure still represents a 55 percent increase year over year. Globally, EVs made up 14 percent of the auto market in 2022, just 9 percent in 2021, and under 5 percent in 2020. Global sales in 2022 were largely dominated by China, which had 60 percent of worldwide EV sales. Europe and the U.S. represented the second- and third-largest EV markets, respectively.

By 2030, the IEA predicts that EVs will average roughly 60 percent of all new car sales in those three markets.

This prediction comes ahead of the European Union’s recent approval of a ban on new gas car sales by 2035, following in the footsteps of Canada and some U.S. states like California, New York, Washington, and others which have adopted similar legislation.

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Sources: International Energy Agency / CNET / YouTube