{"slug":"gas-cars-50","date":"2026-10-07","channel":"machines","layout":"photo","title":"Plug-ins took 25% of global car sales in 2025, up from 0.7% in 2015","dek":"IEA data shows how fast plug-ins grew, and why 'gas cars under 50%' is a narrower claim than it sounds.","body":["Electrek reports that gasoline-only cars made up 49% of global new-vehicle sales in the first half of 2026, down from 73% in 2021, citing Mobility Global data first reported by Nikkei. The same report says battery-electric cars took 17% and conventional hybrids 18%.","The IEA series covers a different slice: plug-in cars. Battery-electric share rose from about 0.4% in 2015 to 16.5% in 2025, and plug-in hybrids from 0.2% to 8.5%. Together that is 25% of roughly 85 million cars, so about 75% of 2025 sales were still gasoline, diesel or non-plug hybrids.","Watch the hybrids. Gasoline-only can drop below half while most of the replacement cars still burn fuel. The IEA plug-in line and the Mobility Global gasoline-only line measure different things, so they should not be subtracted from each other."],"facts":[{"label":"Battery-electric share, 2025 (IEA)","value":"16.5%"},{"label":"Plug-in hybrid share, 2025 (IEA)","value":"8.5%"},{"label":"Plug-ins total, 2015","value":"0.7%"},{"label":"Gasoline-only, H1 2026 (Mobility Global via Electrek)","value":"49%, down from 73% in 2021"}],"chart":{"type":"area-share","title":"Global new-car sales by powertrain, 2015–2025","unit":"% of new cars","x":[2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024,2025],"series":[{"name":"Battery-electric","values":[0.4,0.6,0.9,1.7,1.9,3,6.6,10.7,12.5,13.2,16.5]},{"name":"Plug-in hybrid","values":[0.2,0.4,0.5,0.8,0.8,1.4,2.7,4.3,5.5,7.8,8.5]},{"name":"Not plug-in (gasoline, diesel, hybrid)","values":[99.3,99.1,98.6,97.5,97.3,95.6,90.7,85,82,79,75]}]},"sources":[{"name":"IEA Global EV Data Explorer (API: EV sales, EV sales share, World, Cars)","url":"https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/global-ev-data-explorer","licence":"CC BY 4.0 (IEA)","captured":"2026-10-07","class":"primary"},{"name":"Our World in Data, Share of new cars that are electric (IEA mirror, cross-check)","url":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electric-car-sales-share","licence":"CC BY 4.0","captured":"2026-10-07","class":"primary"},{"name":"Electrek (Mobility Global / Nikkei figures, news only)","url":"https://electrek.co/2026/10/05/gas-cars-fall-below-50-percent-global-new-car-sales/","licence":"news report, figures quoted not reproduced","captured":"2026-10-07","class":"published-report"}],"news":[{"title":"Gas cars fall below 50% of global new car sales for the first time","source":"Electrek","url":"https://electrek.co/2026/10/05/gas-cars-fall-below-50-percent-global-new-car-sales/","published":"2026-10-05"}],"caveats":["The 'gas cars below 50%' figure is Mobility Global's gasoline-only share (49% in H1 2026). It excludes conventional hybrids (18%), diesel and plug-in hybrids. That series is proprietary and could not be charted; no open dataset gives gasoline-only share by year.","The chart shows IEA plug-in shares (BEV + PHEV) through 2025; it has no 2026 data and no split of conventional hybrids. The grey band is everything that is not a plug-in, so it includes hybrids.","Totals are rounded to two significant figures in the IEA API, so BEV and PHEV splits (computed as EV share x BEV or PHEV share of EV sales) carry roughly 1 point of rounding error. Fuel-cell cars (a few thousand a year) fall in the plug-in total.","IEA covers passenger cars; Mobility Global covers new light vehicles, which may include light commercial vehicles. Do not combine the two series."],"photo":{"credit":"Mike Bird / Pexels","licence":"Pexels","page":"https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-orange-gasoline-nozzle-110844/","alt":"Close-up of an electric car being charged, highlighting eco-friendly transportation.","src1280":"/media/briefs/gas-cars-50-1280.avif","bytes1280":33853,"w":1280,"h":719,"src640":"/media/briefs/gas-cars-50-640.avif","bytes640":13174,"originalBytes":182147},"og":"/media/briefs/gas-cars-50-og.png","ogBytes":15481,"indexable":true,"gateNotes":[],"url":"https://tecntrend.com/briefs/2026-10-07/gas-cars-50","licence":"Text and chart CC BY 4.0 Tec N Trend; underlying data per source licence"}