EV Progress Stalls in the U.S.

Data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey shows that the initial gains made in electric and hybrid car ownership could be stalling in the United States. Where the share of respondents who said their household’s primary car was electric or hybrid had ticked up between 2021 and 2023 (reaching 9 percent for hybrid and 6 percent for electric), it did not continue the trend into 2025, each dropping one percentage point. The U.S. continues to be a nation foremostly of gasoline car owners (82 percent of respondents), while ownership of hybrid (8 percent), electric (5 percent) and diesel cars (4 percent) is far rarer.

Across the Atlantic, EV car ownership is picking up in the United Kingdom. There, the share of respondents who said they owned a gasoline car dropped from 61 percent in 2021 to 56 percent in 2025, as ownership of diesel cars fell from 32 percent to 23 percent. Meanwhile, hybrids have become increasingly popular (5 percent in 2021 to 12 percent in 2025), as well as EVs (2 percent in 2021 to 7 percent in 2025).

Vehicle sales in the United States are forecast to decline 2.4 percent to 16.9 million units in 2026, according to Cox Automotive. Toyota has cited the impacts of new tariffs as a challenge up ahead and warns that it expects to raise vehicle prices in the coming year. In terms of the EV market, it’s also not looking promising: Bloomberg reports that the United States' annual passenger EV sales are forecast to contract 15 percent in 2026.