Europe posted a record September for EV sales, with nearly 600,000 units sold, up 39% from a year earlier and 10% above the previous record set in June. The region's year-to-date total stands at 3.9 million, a 30% increase. The UK, France, Spain, Portugal, and Finland all reported their best monthly EV sales ever, with France up 78% and Germany up 61% year over year.
North America saw a 44% year-over-year drop to about 130,000 units, the steepest decline of 2026. But the comparison is misleading: September 2025 was the final month before the US federal $7,500 EV tax credit expired, creating a rush that inflated the baseline. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence cautions that the year-over-year picture should improve from the fourth quarter, when comparisons are against the months immediately after the credit's removal.
China remains the largest EV market, but September sales fell 18% year over year to 1.11 million, deepening from August's 11% decline. Gasoline car sales dropped 43%, so the EV decline does not reflect a return to combustion engines. Chinese automakers exported a record 558,000 new energy vehicles in September, though an EU-China agreement that would cap imports at 350,000 in 2027 and a cut in China's export VAT rebate could make that strategy harder.
Elsewhere, EV sales rose 81% year over year in September to about 310,000 units, bringing the rest of the world's year-to-date total to 2.3 million, nearly double North America's. Globally, sales reached 2.15 million in September, down 2% year over year but up 17% from August, and the year-to-date total is 15.5 million, up 3%.