How the US got left behind in the global electric car race

China lit a fire under the world’s ass when it came to EVs. Do you see what they offer for the price? They beat NA EV’s in every single category in terms of range, luxury features, tech and price. The only thing stopping them from global domination are the 100% tariffs to the US and even Canada is reviewing their 100% tarriff now. Otherwise, best believe that everyone in NA would be driving a Chinese EV and it’s not even close.

I know it’s unpopular but I don’t think EVs are the answer. Electrical public transportation is the absolute way to go, no doubt. Buses, trolleys, trains, etc. which I agree these companies should have gone into, but I, personally, don’t care for a personal EV. I’m sorry, I like a V6 and they’ve become much more efficient over the years. The carbon emissions from independent gas vehicles is nothing compared to what industrial factories produce all around. The corporations are pushing the responsibility to us changing an already established infrastructure rather than cut profits for shareholders. That’s why they did away with recycling coke bottles. Plastic came and they said. Cool. Let the consumer deal with it.

The US is the world’s largest petrochemical producer. Ahead of even Saudi Arabia. The US would be acting against its short term interest if the US embraced electric. I think Biden made a serious effort, but it is clear that the petrochemical industry was going to undermine it eventually

Many people are not early adopters. We want safe proven tech.

They mean “the big 3”. I’m pretty sure Tesla didn’t get left behind yet, no matter how hard Musk is trying to.

We have a side of our politics that are influenced by monied interests not to adopt EV policies, and put forth bad policy.

Some data.

Numbers june year to date new sales unless otherwise stated. In order highest to lowest.

[Norway 96.9%](https://ofv.no/aktuelt/2025/sterk-%C3%B8kning-i-nybilsalget-i-f%C3%B8rste-halv%C3%A5r-75-000-har-kj%C3%B8pt-ny-bil)

[electric vehicles accounted for 76 percent of all passenger vehicles and half of the light commercial vehicles sold in Nepal.](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/business/nepal-electric-vehicles-china.html)

[Denmark 63.8% BEV](https://mobility.dk/nyheder/4-ud-af-5-nye-personbiler-til-private-i-foerste-halvaar-koerte-paa-el/)

[More than 60 percent of newly registered personal cars in Ethiopia in 2024 were electric vehicles ](https://birrmetrics.com/evs-surpass-60-of-new-car-sales-in-ethiopia-outlook/)

[Belgium 33% BEV may 2025 YTD ](https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ID-409-%E2%80%93-high-EU-cars-May-Market-Spotlight-A4-70167-v4.pdf#:~:text=reached%2018,both%20a%20rapidly%20growing%20market)

[Sweden 32.2% BEV ](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/08/evs-take-65-3-share-in-sweden-tesla-model-y-leads/)

[china 31% BEV](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/21/53-ev-share-in-china-june-2025-sales-report/)

[In Q1 2025, Vietnam BEV sales 36% of new car registrations. Page 7](https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ID-409-%E2%80%93-high-EU-cars-May-Market-Spotlight-A4-70167-v4.pdf#:~:text=reached%2018,both%20a%20rapidly%20growing%20market)

[UK 24.8% BEV june](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/14/evs-take-35-9-share-in-the-uk-tesla-back-on-top/)

[Uruguay Rises to 24% BEV Market Share in August ](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/09/19/uruguay-ev-sales-report-a-new-latin-american-leader-emerges-as-uruguay-rises-to-24-bev-market-share-in-august/)

[Thailand January-may BEV 21%](https://www.nationthailand.com/business/automobile/40051682)

[Light and Medium trucks 19% BEV and heavy trucks 1.4% BEV in the EU in 1st half 2025. ](https://www.sustainabletruckvan.com/icct-zero-emission-truck-market-h1-2025/)

[Turkiye’s plugin vehicle (PEV) share now at 18%. July ](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/08/22/turkiye-ev-sales-report-three-kings-rule-fast-growing-market/)

[europe as a whole 17% BEV ](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/02/europe-ev-sales-report-king-volkswagen-rules-in-a-fast-growing-34-yoy-ev-market/)

[germany 17.7% BEV ](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/16/evs-take-28-4-share-in-germany-byd-surfs-up/)

[france 17% BEV june ](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/06/evs-at-24-0-share-in-france-tesla-model-y-tops-chart/)

[EU 15.6% BEV](https://www.acea.auto/pc-registrations/new-car-registrations-1-9-in-h1-2025-battery-electric-15-6-market-share/)

[globally 15% BEV](https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/03/global-ev-sales-plugin-vehicles-reach-25-share/)

[Swiss EV Market H1 sales 2025 dropped 1.6% to reach a share of about 14.3%. ](https://www.focus2move.com/switzerland-auto-market/)

[Australia 10.3% BEV](https://thedriven.io/2025/07/03/australian-ev-sales-surge-to-record-10-3-pct-share-as-tesla-byd-and-geely-dominate/)

[In Q1 2025 Colombia’s BEV market
share rose to 8%. Page 7
](https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ID-409-%E2%80%93-high-EU-cars-May-Market-Spotlight-A4-70167-v4.pdf#:~:text=reached%2018,both%20a%20rapidly%20growing%20market)

[US 8% BEV](https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/ev-market-monitor-june-2025/)

[ZEVs a category that includes fully electric and plug-in hybrids accounting for only 7.9 percent of total sales in June in Canada ](https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/canadas-ev-sales-drop-35-in-june-2025-as-market-awaits-federal-incentives/)

[India EVs in the 2 wheeler category 7.6% july 2025 4 wheeler category 4.8% july 2025](https://evreporter.com/indias-electric-vehicle-sales-trend-july-2025/#fuel-wise-4w-passenger-carcab-sales-trend)

[Iraq’s EV market surged 41.6% in Q1 of 2025, reaching 3% of total vehicle sales.](https://www.focus2move.com/iraqi-cars-sales/)

This is absolutely not new.

The order of adoption has always been China – Europe – U.S. And each are following a fairly predictable adoption curve.

Europe is about 2 years behind China. The U.S. is about 2 years behind Europe.

This has not changed and I doubt it will change much in the future.

So look at where China is now, and that is where Europe will be at the end of 2027 and where the U.S. will be at the end of 2029.

That China is first is not really that surprising. They were absolutely choking on their own fumes. They would have had riots if they tried to tell people they could not have a car, but if everyone had ICE cars, the cities would become toxic wastelands.

Europe being ahead is also not that surprising. We like to flatter ourselves about how ecological we are. Plus, our access to oil has always been a bit precarious. It was either coming from such super-stable partners like Russia (/s if anyone needs it), or it was coming from areas that only reached us by the grace of Washington.

That the U.S. is last is also not really surprising. It is much more spread out, fewer people, and has not had any real oil issues for decades.

Anyone looking at these three areas with an objective eye could have easily predicted the order.

I think the biggest surprise is that the main EV producer ended up coming from the U.S. I would have thought that we would have been much more active here. In fact, It’s basically already turning into a Tesla/BYD world, with almost every other carmaker outside of China apparently having learned nothing. Well, either that, or they have just made the decision to ride it out and make money as long as they can with no intention of surviving into the EV world.