Gas cars fall below 50% of global new car sales for first time — SkimNews
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- Gasoline-only vehicles made up 49% of global new-vehicle sales in H1 2026, down from 73% in 2021, per Mobility Global data first reported by Nikkei — the first time the share has fallen below half.
- Battery-electric vehicles grew 12% to 6.87 million units (17% market share, up 3 points), while conventional hybrids grew 10% to 7.27 million units (18%), per Mobility Global.
- Mobility Global (spun off from S&P Global this year) noted gas-only sales fell twice as fast as the overall car market, which shrank about 5% per the IEA amid Middle East conflict-driven fuel price spikes.
- China saw gas car sales fall 26% and Europe saw a 13% drop, with ACEA registrations showing BEVs ahead of petrol cars YTD through August (1,641,333 to 1,634,733).
- Mobility Global's Yoshiaki Kawano told Nikkei few EV buyers return to gasoline or hybrids, expecting demand to grow on "genuine consumer needs rather than subsidies" as prices fall.
- In the US, where the federal EV tax credit has ended, Cox data shows hybrid volume up 23% to a record 16.3% share in Q2, with ICE share declining rather than rebounding as gas hovers around $4.50/gallon, up 41% year-over-year.
Why it matters: Gas-only cars lost 24 points of global share in five years and fell twice as fast as the overall auto market during an oil shock, suggesting the shift is now consumer-economics driven. Kawano's note that EV buyers rarely return to combustion, plus US data showing hybrids absorbing buyers who lost the federal tax credit, indicates automakers' electrification bets are defended by fuel prices and total cost of ownership rather than policy alone.
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