Global electric cars on course for records: Germany is lagging behind!

Global electric cars on course for records: Germany is lagging behind!

Electromobility is gaining momentum worldwide. At the turn of the year 2025, almost 56 million cars with electric drives were registered, which corresponds to an impressive increase of around a third compared to the previous year. Loud NP Coburg This inventory includes 55.8 million pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and vehicles with range extenders. A look at the distribution of electric cars shows that more than half, around 31.4 million, are on the road in China.

The USA and Germany follow with 6.4 million and 2.6 million electric cars, while Great Britain and France each have around 2.1 million. Norway has managed to register over 1 million electric cars. These figures make it clear that the demand for electric vehicles is unbroken, even if growth at this point in Germany still offers potential, as the figures from ADAC prove.

Current new registrations

In May 2025, more than 43,000 battery-only cars (BEVs) were newly registered in Germany, which corresponds to 18 percent of all new car registrations. That's an impressive 45 percent increase compared to May last year. Even though the total number of new registrations is 239,297 vehicles - an increase of 1.2 percent compared to the previous year - we still remain behind the pre-Corona numbers. The share of electric cars in the total number of registered cars was 3.3 percent, while plug-in hybrids were 2.0 percent, according to current information from ADAC.

Let's take a look at the market shares: VW leads with 20.9 percent of new registrations, followed by Mercedes, BMW and Škoda. What is particularly exciting is that BYD recorded a jump of 800 percent in new registrations, while Tesla only reported 1,210 new registrations. The successful models in May are the VW Golf, T-Roc and Tiguan, with the VW ID.7 standing out as the best-selling electric car.

Global trends and challenges

But what is the status of electromobility worldwide? Loud Statista The number of electric cars amounted to almost 42 million at the end of 2023, with the majority being located in China. In Europe, the Netherlands leads the way with the most charging infrastructure, followed by Germany. In this country, there is a charging point for every 20.5 electric cars, which underlines the dependence on public infrastructure.

The good news: The average CO₂ emissions of newly registered cars fell to 109 g/km. This is a sign that the industry is becoming increasingly environmentally friendly. However, electric cars are only truly ecological if the electricity required comes from renewable energies. In addition, the still high speed of battery production shows that a new race for the best and most environmentally friendly technologies has begun.

Finally, it should be noted that electromobility is in the midst of an exciting change. Despite challenges in inventory and competitive pressure on the market, the prospects are promising. With growing demand and increasing supply, electric cars could become even more common on our roads in the near future.