• After a stellar performance in September, global EV and PHEV sales hit a new record last month.
• Over 1.7 million all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold in October globally.
• Year-to-date, US sales of EVs and PHEVs went up 9%.

Electric vehicle sales charts have yet to stabilize. One month, sales might be up, while another month in another region of the world, we might see a dip–enough to pour more fuel on misleading stories like “EVs are doomed.”

The truth is that overall, EV sales are growing, as attested by numerous research firms and sales reports. Sure, some automakers are doing better than others, but it’s mostly green numbers when adding everything up.

Case in point: over 1.7 million all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold globally in October alone, according to research house Rho Motion. That’s a new record, by the way, with 50,000 more units compared to the previous record set in September.

“The global EV market is now picking back up again, hitting record sales for the second month in a row,” said Charles Lester, Rho Motion Data Manager. “Most of the growth is coming from China and Western manufacturers are clearly feeling threatened by this. The US market remains buoyant in part thanks to IRA funding for consumers switching to electric which may be at risk with the start of the Trump presidency.”

China is again leading the pack with 1.2 million EVs and PHEVs sold last month, a 6% month-over-month increase and a jump of over 50% compared to October 2023. Year-to-date, a whopping 8.4 million electrified vehicles were sold in China, 38% more than last year.

That said, all of the world’s regions saw sales increase, albeit not at the same rate. In the United States and Canada, 1.4 million battery-powered cars were sold from January to October, an increase of 9% over the same period last year.

In the countries of the European Union, European Free Trade Association and the United Kingdom, sales of EVs and PHEVs surpassed 260,000 units in October, a 1% increase year-on-year but a decrease of 14% compared to September. Year-to-date, things are not looking great here, with a 3% decrease compared to 2023, but there’s still time to recover until the year is out–at least in theory.

The German market is slowly recovering from the sales dip that hit hard earlier this year. Rho Motion notes EV and PHEV sales went up 12% month-on-month and 3% year-on-year in October, but German electrified vehicle sales are still down 18% year-to-date. At the same time, the UK recorded a 14% increase in year-to-date sales, followed by Portugal with 11%. Denmark, meanwhile, saw year-to-date sales go through the roof, with a 31% year-to-date increase.

The rest of the world is also doing quite well. A total of 1 million EVs and PHEVs were sold in these regions since the beginning of the year, a 27% increase over last year.