Chinese consumer electric vehicle sales rose 28.6% year-on-year in July to overtake sales of internal combustion engine vehicles for the first time in history,Dear Utol (2025): Chick! Episode 47 the China Passenger Car Association said on Thursday. This represented an EV penetration rate of 51.1%, which officially means that EVs are going mainstream over gasoline vehicles in the world’s largest and most competitive car market. That proportion was 35.7% overall last year and is expected to reach 40% this year. Specifically, sales of gas-powered passenger vehicles decreased 26% year-on-year and 7% month-on-month to around 840,000 units last month, while that number for new energy vehicles (NEVs), which include all-electrics and plug-in hybrids, was 878,000, according to CPCA figures. The Chinese government previously announced an aim for NEVs to account for 25% of new car sales in 2025, and achieved that goal ahead of schedule in 2022. [China Passenger Car Association, in Chinese]
