Top 18 Electric Car Countries (with Chart)

Published by Ivan Phillips
On December 15, 2019

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Let’s go back 8-10 years, electric cars were a luxury item for most people. A time when one kilowatt hour would cost anywhere between $800 – $1,000 USD. Most countries had NO user friendly charging infrastructure. Fast-forward to 2019 and it’s a completely different story. You can now buy one kilowatt hour for a little over $100 USD. Modern 1st world cities have and continue to invest in, better charging infrastructures.

The writing is on the wall, electric cars are the future. In this long post, you’ll get an ordered list showing you which countries have the highest demand. Based on our research, we found 18 countries which are taking serious strides towards EV’s.

#18 Japan 1.10%

In 2009, Mitsubishi introduced their iMiEV to the entire world. It was a groundbreaking automobile for many city dwellers. Despite the iMiEV’s odd shape, its success was nothing compared to the Nissan Leaf in 2011. By looking at the last decade, you can see Japan has played a big role in introducing affordable EV’s and PHEV’s.

In 2016, the market share declined from 0.68% to 0.59% market share. The government at that time started to push the sales of hydrogen electric vehicles. Then in 2017, the sales recovered with almost 56,000 plug-in cars sold and market share numbers reaching 1.10%.

#17 Germany 1.90%

Germany is a big play in the world of EV’s and PHEV’s. They specialize in luxury vehicles like the Audi e-tron, BMW i3, Volkswagen eGolf, BMW i8, and now the Mercedes EQC.

As a country, Germany has embraced electric cars quite well. In 2017, the market share for electric vehicles rose to 1.58%. By 2018, their market share grew by an extra 0.32% to 1.90%. While of course nowhere close to being the MOST friendly country to EV’s, it’s far from the worst as well.

#16 Denmark 2.00%

Rated as one of the countries with the “best” standards of living, Denmark has a lot to offer. When it comes to electric cars, they are doing quite well. As of 2018, Denmark has a total market share of 2.00%, beating out its close neighbor Germany by 0.10%.

Denmark has done well with charging infrastructure. Its letting most people travel anywhere in the country with much of a hassle.

#15 United States 2.10%

For a country with over 300 million people, the market share has become quite impressive. It seems like each year, more states start to adopt stringent emission regulations. States like California, Oregon, Maryland, Colorado, Arizona, Washington State and District of Columbia.

One would think a country that gave birth to Tesla Motors would in the top 10. But, there’s still much progress to be made. Market share numbers are 2.10% as of 2018.

#14 France 2.11%

France is leading the way with the number of electric vehicles registered since 2010. As of 2017, they have recorded a total of 148,797 light-duty and heavy-duty electric vehicles. Those figures consisted of a mix of plug-in hybrid and pure electric automobiles.

For Europeans, the Renault Zoe is one of the most popular electric cars on the market. Outselling cars like the Nissan Leaf, Smart Fortwo ED, BMW i3, and many others.

In September of 2016, France granted incentives for anyone who scrapped their old diesel automobile. According to records, more than 10,000 people went through that program. Numbers seem to be on the rise for countries like France. As of 2017, market share numbers reached 2.11%.

#13 Canada 2.16%

In 2017, Canada accounted for a total of 45,950 plug-in electric passenger cars. This consisted of 23,620 all-electric and 22,330 plug-in hybrid cars. As of 2017, the countries total market share reached 2.16%.

While the vast majority of the country remains a vast wilderness, along the borer with the US is where all the action is. Cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver are major hubs for EV’s.

The most popular EV in Canada is the Tesla Model S. By December 2017, Tesla sold 6,731 Model S’s.

#12 Belgium 2.50%

Belgium may be a small country, but its home to over 11 million people. Unlike some of its neighboring countries which are adopting EV’s at a much higher rate, Belgium is slightly behind. The government ended its incentives in 2012, resulting in absolutely no financial incentives to buy these electric cars.

Despite that, in 2016 there were 4,368 electric cars on the road. In 2017 the number increased to 6,552 and further to 9,244 in 2018.

According to data collected, Belgium accounts for 2.50% of the worldwide market share.

#11 United Kingdom 2.53%

Since early 2010, there has been a steady rise of electric car ownership in the United Kingdom. By 2018, data records show 212,000 electric vehicles registered (10,000 of them being plug-in commercial vans).

In January of 2019, there were 19,108 public charging points at over 6,000 locations (4,391 of which are FAST chargers). This says a lot, considering the UK had one of the most drastic market share growths in the last 5-6 years. When records began in 2013, the market share was a tiny 0.16%. A year later in 2014, it grew to 0.59%. Fast forward to 2018 and you’ll see the market share jump to 2.60%.

#10 Switzerland 2.55%

Switzerland… its neutral, beautiful, has high standards of living and is somewhat serious with electric cars. While it can’t stack up to countries like Iceland, Norway or Sweden, year after year growth has been going up.

As of April 2016, there has been over 12,000 electric vehicles registered. Market share figures are at 2.55% even though the Swiss government does not offer any financial incentives.

In some cantons (administrative division), you may qualify for annual tax relief.

#9 Austria 2.60%

Austria is much like Switzerland, beautiful in every way. Surrounded with majestic mountains, its blessed with a rich history. If you get a chance to visit, do it!

When it comes to EV adoption, plug-in vehicle sales went up by 22% in 2018. Recorded market share rose to 2.60% (compare to 2.1% in 2017). Being Germanys neighbor, the best selling electric vehicle is the Volkswagen e-Golf.

#8 China 4.20%

China homes almost 1.5 billion people, the most in the world by country. If you ever watched the news, you’d see them slam China for having polluted air in cities like Beijing. The CCP has been pressing hard to change their countries image to being a “sustainable” nation.

According to figures, they are doing exactly that. China managed to reach a market share of 4.20%. It wouldn’t surprise us to see China take over many countries listed below in the next decade.

#7 Finland 4.20%

It looks like Finland has high hopes for an electrified future by 2030. The Finish government has set an aim to have 250,000 plug-in cars and 50,000 biogas cars.

In October of 2016, there was a recorded 2,250 EV’s registered. Sales also reached 854 electric vehicles in the first three quarters of 2016. You may be thinking that’s not that many sales based on the size of the country… but actually, it’s quite good.

Especially when you consider that they have the same market share of 4.20% as China.

#6 Portugal 5.60%

Portugal had early ambitions to get the whole country electrified. In 2009, Portugal worked with Renault and Nissan to create a nationwide charging network. One year later, they started offering financial incentives for the first 5,000 electric vehicles purchased.

In 2014, the estimated number of vehicles sold were a measly 283. By 2015, there were a total of 1,305 electric vehicles sold. Last year in 2018, Portugal sold 1 plug-in car for every 20 cars sold nationwide. Their market share surged to 5.6% compared to only 3.6% in 2015.

#5 Andorra 5.60%

As of 2017, Andorra’s market share has reached 5.6%. For such a small country, that means they are buying electric cars like there’s no tomorrow!

The country also offers many incentives for current and future EV owners, including:

Financial aid in purchasing an electric vehicles
Authorizing to travel in bus lanes
Free passage through the Tunnel d-Envalira
Discounted charging

#4 Netherlands 6.50%

The Netherlands is a small country consisting of flat plains and windmills. Okay, I am oversimplifying this place, but it’s a nice place to visit if you ever have a chance.

When it comes to electric vehicle ownership, they have recommitted themselves. The country had a very strong market share in 2015 with 9.9%. It fell to 6.7% in 2016, 2.6% in 2017 and last year in 2018, it jumped back by almost 3X to 6.5%.

In December 2018, there was 121,542 EV’s and PHEV’s registered in the country. That number accounts for 98,217 plug-in hybrids, 2,210 electric utility vans, and 21,115 electric light-duty cars.

Future numbers are looking bright, with the number likely to surpass 7.00% by the end of 2019.

#3 Sweden 8.20%

Being right next door to the #1 most EV friendly country in the world has its perks. Sweden made to #3 on this list as the country with a market share of 8.20%. As of December 2017, there was 50,304 plug-in vehicles registered.

That number consisted of 36,405 plug-in hybrids, 12,223 pure electrics, and 1,676 electric utility vans.

At the moment the market share in Sweden is leaning toward plug-in hybrid vehicles by almost 75%.

#2 Iceland 19.00%

Who would-of thought Iceland would be NUMBER TWO on this list?

This island country has a very an impressive 19.00% market share. For a country with less than a 400K people, the they seem to be VERY friendly towards electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Per capita in 2017, the country had 2,990 plug-in vehicles registered, up 157% from previous year.

If you’re wondering how the country can have such a high jump in plug-in vehicle registrations, its because of the government. Tax incentives and HUGE savings (compared to buying gas and diesel cars) is what’s leading people towards the EV route.

#1 Norway 49.10%

You guessed it, Norway is leading the pack when it comes to market share. The government wants to transition to 100% EV’s by 2025. No matter where you look, Norway is painted as a haven for EV ownership (for good reason). Norway gets the biggest priority for different type of electric vehicles.

As of 2018, Norway has a market share of 49.1%. That’s an improvement by almost 10% from year before.

As the government heavily taxes fossil fuels, more people will be switching to EV’s. The 2025 projection, seems quite achievable at this pace!

In Conclusion

We’ve reached the end of this post, by now you know some information you didn’t know before. Was there a country that you didn’t expect would be on this list?

For us, we never thought Iceland would be #2!

We also thought Japan would be somewhere closer towards the #1 spot. But after doing research, this is the information we came across.

The more you know.

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