This EV Sales Chart Really Embarrasses The USA

The other day, I shared a great chart reader Mike Shurtleff shared with us and wrote an article about it. The article was “Vehicle Sales Growth Since 2020 Is Entirely From Electric Cars,” and the chart came from Our World In Data. It’s a fascinating one that I highly recommend if you missed it. Well, Mike has been sharing another chart from Our World In Data and it also deserved a shoutout.

It’s inspiring to look at how Norway has nearly completed the EV transition. China’s EV market rise in the past few years is exciting and impressive, showing even more rapid growth up to 50% EV market share than Norway had! The UK and Europe have strong EV growth in the past 4–5 years, but with the EU’s stalling for a bit in 2024. It’s not head-turning growth, but it’s something. Overall world EV sales growth is like a perfect staircase upward. But then … the USA….

The US EV market is so tiny. Sales growth is so anemic and slow. The extent to which we are behind the UK and Europe, not to mention China and Norway … it’s all so embarrassing. It’s such a disgrace. It’s just another dramatic visual representation of how the US is being left behind in the 21st century, how we have become a technology laggard more than a technology leader in many cases.

Really, I guess, it’s the perfect followup to this: Vietnam & Thailand Humiliating the USA.