Global EV sales dip 2% in September as Europe sets a monthly record

The world bought 2.15 million electric vehicles in September 2026, 17% more than in August and 2% fewer than a year earlier, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence reported on October 16. That brings the year's total to 15.5 million, up 3% on the same period of 2025.

Europe did the lifting. It sold almost 600,000 EVs, its strongest month on record and 10% above the previous high set in June, with sales up 39% year on year: battery-electric cars grew 50% and plug-in hybrids 16%. The UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Finland all set monthly records, although the UK's more than 3.5-fold jump from August reflects the September registration plate change, which lifts the whole car market every year. Germany's EV sales rose 61% to 117,000.

North America fell 44% year on year, its steepest decline of 2026 so far, and 8% from August. By Benchmark's reading, that says more about September 2025 than this September: US buyers rushed to purchase EVs before the federal tax credit expired at the end of that month. From October the comparison is with the months after the credit's removal, when US EV sales collapsed, so Benchmark expects the year-on-year declines to narrow significantly. Within the region, zero-emission vehicles were 19.1% of California's third-quarter new-car sales (California ZEVs took 19.1% of Q3 new-car sales; about 12,000 used MyFirstEV), and Canada's federal EV incentive requests rose every month of the third quarter (Canada's EV incentive requests fell 14.3% in Q3; Quebec's share hit 52.5%).

China's year-on-year EV sales decline widened to 18% from 11% in August, even as sales rose 7% month on month. Plug-in hybrids are down 25% for the year to date, battery-electric cars 6%. Carmakers have kept production steady and shipped the surplus abroad: passenger car NEV exports set a monthly record of 558,000. Two policies could weigh on that from 2027, Benchmark notes: the EU's hybrid arrangement with China, which it describes as a cap of 350,000 units a year for four years from 2027, rising 6% a year from the second year and still awaiting EU member states' approval, and the cut in China's export VAT rebate from 13% to 9% on April 1, 2027.