Sales of battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids rose by 44% year-on-year in 2019 to over 600,000 vehicles, according to McKinsey's investigations. This makes Europe's development stand out globally: In China, e-car sales rose by only 3% to 1.2 million units, while in the USA the market shrank by as much as 12% year-on-year to just over 300,000 cars. A total of 2.3 million e-cars were sold worldwide in 2019, 9% more than in 2018, enabling Europe to increase its global market share to over 25%; e-cars accounted for 2.8% of all new registrations in 2019.

Norway, as the most mature e-car market in Europe, retains the lead not only in China but also in the McKinsey Electric Vehicle Index (EVI), which is used by management consultants McKinsey & Company to regularly measure the development of e-mobility in the 15 most important countries.

"China remains the largest market in the world, the supply of local Chinese products has increased significantly," says Nicolai Müller, senior partner in McKinsey's Cologne office. "However, demand in Europe has risen sharply. Further momentum can be expected - namely from the increasing range of products with which manufacturers are aiming to meet the CO2 limits". By 2021, manufacturers in Europe will have to bring more than 2 million e-cars onto the market in order to avoid penalty payments to the EU.