The EV party is still going — just not in the same room
Global electric-vehicle sales reached 1.85 million units in July 2026, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, up 9% from a year earlier and bringing year-to-date sales to 11.5 million. So yes, the EV market is still growing. But if you zoom in, it looks less like a single global trend and more like three different movies playing at once.
Europe hits the gas
Europe was the clear bright spot. Sales jumped 33% year over year in July to 450,000 units, with year-to-date growth at 28%. France, Germany, and the UK all posted chunky gains, while Spain is getting an extra push from its new Auto+ subsidy program, which kicked off on August 4th and offers subsidies of up to €4,500 for passenger EVs.
That matters because policy support is still doing a lot of the heavy lifting. When governments sweeten the deal, buyers show up — imagine the EV market with a coupon code.
North America loses its tax-credit sugar rush
North America, meanwhile, fell 27% year over year to 140,000 units after the US federal EV tax credits expired at the end of September 2025. That’s a pretty clean reminder that demand can get a lot less exciting once the incentives table gets pulled away from the party.
China stabilizes, and exporters keep shipping
China’s domestic market slipped 5% in July to 980,000 units, but the trend wasn’t all bad news. Penetration stayed above 50% across multiple months in 2026, and Chinese automakers exported a record 500,000 new energy vehicles in July.
So the takeaway isn’t just “EV growth is alive.” It’s that the winners may increasingly be the companies and regions that can either:
- tap policy support,
- keep costs low without subsidies,
- or sell overseas when the home market gets wobbly.
The supply-chain headache nobody can ignore
BMI also flagged rare-earth bottlenecks as a structural risk, especially for permanent magnets and chemical separation outside China. In plain English: even if demand cooperates, the supply chain can still throw a wrench in the drivetrain.
Big picture: the EV trade is still moving forward, but the road is bumpy, regional, and very much shaped by policy — which is exactly the kind of thing investors should keep on their radar.