India badly trails the world in the share of electric cars as a percentage of new car sales, despite the government’s aggressive target of hitting 30 per cent penetration by 2030 — backed by numerous measures to speed up electrification.
According to new data published by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) — an autonomous inter-governmental organisation — electric cars made up 25 per cent of all new cars sold globally in 2025.
Gold Rate
June 04- 2026 - Time 10.30Hrs
As many as 20 million cars sold around the world were electric, said the IEA, which includes battery-run and plug-in hybrids among electric vehicles.
Against this benchmark India’s share was a mere 4 per cent of all new cars sold in the country. And this, too, was concentrated in just two large carmakers — Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra — which accounted for 60 per cent of the 165,000 electric cars sold last year.
IEA data showed electric car sales crossed the 10 per cent mark in 23 countries, apart from the European Union.
They include: Vietnam (41 per cent in 2025 compared with zero in 2020), Thailand (23 per cent), Indonesia (15 per cent from zero in 2020), South Korea (11 per cent), and Philippines (10 per cent). In Latin America, Brazil (9 per cent) and Mexico (7 per cent) are ahead of India.
And in Europe Turkey surprised, with its share jumping to 20 per cent from a mere 1 per cent in 2022.
India’s neighbour Nepal was another success story with electric car sales in 2025 hitting 68 per cent from 10 per cent in 2020.
Expectedly, Norway remained at the top with 97 per cent of its total new car sales being electric last year.
China came in with 53 per cent while the US just about managed to cross 10 per cent, compared with 2 per cent in 2020.
A key reason for India’s sputtering performance is the lack of charging stations.
The IEA study placed India second from the bottom among 17 countries in the share of electric car owners who have home-charging facilities. India’s share was 55 per cent, compared with 80 to 90 per cent in Norway, Switzerland and the US.
India, according to the IEA, had 88,000 charging points as of 2025 — a miniscule share of the global stock of 7 million. China controlled 65 per cent of the world’s public charging points.
