Electrified Vehicles Sales Grew Everywhere Except for North America in 2025

North America stands out as the only major region on earth where sales of electrified vehicles dropped in 2025, as compared to the previous year, demonstrating the power that disappearing incentives, among other factors, can have on the growth of the segment.

Globally, sales of electrified vehicles — including electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and hybrids — grew by 20 per cent, per Rho Motion, which specializes in EV supply chain research. That growth was achieved thanks to markets like China, where sales grew 17 per cent to 12.9 million, and Europe, where sales grew 33 per cent to 4.3 million in 2025.

Meanwhile, in North America, sales fell 4 per cent to 1.8 million sales last year. While the downturn makes the region unique, the reasons behind it aren’t hard to identify, according to Charles Lester, the benchmark mineral intelligence data manager at Rho Motion.

“In North America, it will come as no surprise that the year has been tumultuous for the region,” said Lester. Given its size, the United States has played an outsize role in driving sales metrics in the region.

“A year on from Trump’s inauguration, he has delivered on many of the promises he made to roll back the EV buying incentives and is attempting to domesticate manufacturing,” Lester added. “For the first time in seven years in the US we are predicting the market will shrink, by almost a third.”

In addition to rolling back incentives for zero emission vehicles (ZEVs), the Trump administration also reduced penalties for automakers under the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) restrictions to zero, taking away one of the major deterrents to automakers selling polluting vehicles.

The drop in sales wasn’t all down to the U.S., though. In Canada, the disappearance of federal incentive for ZEVs led to a 41 per cent decrease in electrified vehicle sales. However, sales of electrified vehicles grew by 29 per cent in Mexico.

Although North America was the only major region in which sales of electrified vehicles fell in 2025, growth in China slowed. However, Rho Motion attributes the slowing to a particularly strong 2024, when improved subsidies lifted sales significantly.

While sales grew quickly in Europe, Rho Motion anticipates that the momentum will be difficult to keep up as the European Union has softened its emissions targets. The revival of incentives in important markets, however, means that sales are expected to grow again this year, albeit a little more slowly than they did in 2025.