Global demand for electric vehicles rose for a third straight month in May, as subsidies and high petrol prices continued to drive the transition away from combustion-engine cars, data from consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence showed on Wednesday.
Registrations of new battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rose 3% from a year earlier to around 1.8 million in May, a proxy for sales, pushing the total 0.9% higher than last year for the first five months of the year, BMI said.
“Europe really is the driving factor towards this growth at the moment,” BMI data manager Charles Lester told Reuters.
Registrations climbed 23% to about 415,000 units in May in the region, boosted by government subsidies and high petrol prices pulling forward purchases, Lester said.
The global picture, however, continued to be uneven.
In China, May registrations fell 9% from a year earlier to roughly 987,000 vehicles after support for auto trade-ins was withdrawn and a tax break on electric-vehicle purchases expired in early 2026.
Following weaker domestic sales so far this year, more and more Chinese OEMs have looked to expand further into the global market, BMI noted.
“The trend that we’ve been seeing over the last couple of months is joint ventures and the potential for Chinese OEMs to produce in underutilised capacity in Europe,” Lester said.
Sales also dropped 26% in North America to around 123,000 units in May, hit by the end of a U.S. tax credit scheme and proposals by President Donald Trump’s administration to further ease carbon dioxide emissions rules.
The pivot has been towards producing internal combustion engines and hybrid electric vehicles in the U.S., Lester said.
He added that Canada’s move to open its market to some Chinese OEMs will not be enough to significantly shift the trajectory of the North American EV market.
(Reporting by Mathias de Rozario in Gdansk)
