Electric cars: are countries going fully electric, or do people prefer plug-in hybrids?

Almost three-quarters of new electric cars sold are fully electric. But in some countries – most in Europe – plug-in hybrids still lead the way.

Electric cars are growing quickly. Faster than most people – including energy analysts – expected.

I’ve shared the data on the growth of electric cars on this blog before. These numbers include both battery electric cars (all-electric) and plug-in hybrids. 

But many people object to plug-in hybrids being included. Plug-in hybrids run on battery power some of the time, but still have an internal combustion engine. They still partly run on petrol.

For this reason, many people argue that plug-in hybrids shouldn’t be included in EV statistics at all. Some even suggest that plug-in hybrids are just petrol cars in disguise. This is not true: plug-in hybrids do achieve smaller emissions reductions than battery electric cars, but they still reduce emissions compared to a conventional gasoline car.

In any case, if we want to achieve the largest emissions cuts, we want people to choose battery electric over hybrids.

Are our EV statistics really hiding a big boom in hybrids? And how do these sales vary across the world?

I explore the data – from the International Energy Agency – in this post. Globally, 72% of new electric car sales are fully electric. The remaining 28% are hybrids. In many countries, new hybrids are almost non-existent. But there are some countries – mostly in Europe – where more than half of new electric cars are still plug-in hybrids.

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What is a plug-in hybrid?

First, I’ll give a very quick background on what plug-in hybrids are, for the unfamiliar. If you already know, feel free to skip to the next section.

Plug-in hybrids have an electric motor to power a battery but also have an internal combustion engine that runs on petrol or diesel (usually petrol). The battery can charge through standard charging equipment (just as you would with a fully-electric car), from the engine, or from regenerative braking. Plug-in hybrids will run on the battery power until it runs out, then switch over to running on gasoline.

The electric range of plug-in hybrids is much lower than fully electric ones. The average battery-electric gets around 220 miles on a single charge. Some get more than 500 miles. The average plug-in hybrid gets around 40 to 50 miles.

This is more than most drivers travel in a day. For most, it’s enough for several days, especially for city commuters. But while those with a fully electric car might get away with weekly charges, most hybrids would need a recharge every day or two. If not, their car becomes a petrol one. Not to mention long journeys, where sticking over to petrol seems almost inevitable.

So, most plug-in hybrid drivers need to use petrol some of the time. And that means they don’t cut emissions as much as fully-electric cars. But they do still reduce emissions compared to petrol or diesel.

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Globally, most new electric cars are fully battery electric

Most of the new electric cars that are sold globally are fully battery-electric. 

In 2022, electric cars accounted for around 14% of all new cars sold: 10% being battery electric cars, and the remaining 4% as plug-in hybrids.

That means that globally, 72% of new electric cars sold were fully-electric. This is shown in the chart below. You can see that the fast growth is not a story of plug-in hybrids, disguised as EVs.

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Plug-in hybrid’s share is decreasing over time

The sales of both battery electric and plug-in hybrids are going up. We could see that from the chart we just looked at.

But battery electric cars have grown faster. That means that the share of new EVs that are plug-in hybrids has fallen.

We see this in the chart below. Through the first half of the 2010s, 40% or more were hybrids. Since then, this has dropped to around 27%. Just over one-quarter.

In the interactive version of this chart, you can explore this data for many countries using the dropdown.

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In many countries, most new EVs are fully electric

This global story hides the variation between countries. Some countries are fully invested in battery electric cars; plug-in hybrids hardly get a look in.

In the chart, we see the share of new electric cars that are battery electric in 2022. You can see that in some – India, Turkey, Norway, the US, China, Canada, and the UK are just some examples – around three-quarters or more are battery electric.

But there is also a reasonable number where less than half are battery-electric. Most of them are in Europe: Greece, Spain, Italy, and Finland, as well as Brazil across the Atlantic.

In the interactive version of this chart, you can use the time slider to look at this metric over time.

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Europe loves its plug-in hybrids

Let’s look at the flip of that metric: the share of electric car sales that are plug-in hybrids. Europe tops the list. In Greece, two-thirds are hybrids. More than half are in Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Finland.

Other European countries aren’t far behind: Portugal, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden are all above 40%. The average across the European Union is 44%.

In the interactive version of this chart, you can use the time slider to look at this metric over time.

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Many of the most popular EV countries have a high share of plug-in hybrids

Many of these countries are near the top of the rankings for ‘electric car popularity’. In the chart, I’ve shown them ranked in terms of the total share of new cars that are electric. That’s the sum of battery electric and plug-in hybrids. It’s what we’d normally report as ‘EV sales’.

Norway – at the top – is all-in on battery electrics. But you can see that the other countries in the top five – Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland – all have a large share of plug-in hybrids.

That’s not to say that the breakthrough of EVs in these countries is not impressive. Even when you just look at battery-electric cars, sales numbers are high. More than 40% in Iceland; one-third in Sweden; one-in-five in Denmark.

But it’s important to know that when we say ‘half of new cars in Sweden are electric’, that doesn’t mean they’re all fully electric.

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