PHEV buyers steered 79% more GWh onto roads in 2023

Plug-ins captured 13% of the global market

Last year, 689.2 GWh was deployed onto roads globally in all newly sold passenger EVs combined, up 40% over the year prior Adamas data shows.

Drivers of new BEVs hauled a combined 594.0 GWh onto the world’s highways and byways last year, 36% more than in 2022. In total, BEVs captured 86% of the global EV market last year by GWh deployed, down from 89% the year prior.   

Conventional HEVs steered a combined 6.65 GWh onto the world’s roads in 2023, up 32% year-over-year, equal to a 1% share of the global market, unchanged from the year prior.   

Last but not least, the batteries fitted to all newly sold PHEVs last year had a combined capacity of 88.5 GWh, an eye-catching 79% leap over 2022. With this jump, the gaso-lectric vehicles captured a modest 13% of the global market last year by GWh deployed, up from 10% in 2022.

Adamas take:

The growth in power-hours rolled onto global roads last year ran well ahead of EV sales growth, which climbed by 32% to over 19.2 million.     

Notably, the 40% rise in battery capacity deployed globally last year came despite the rising popularity of PHEVs, which have inherently smaller batteries (i.e., fewer kWh per unit).  

This is particularly true in China (responsible for nearly 50% of global EV sales last year) where PHEV sales grew 76% year-on-year in 2023 and now make up 34% of the EV unit market (as of December 2023).

Were it not for an increase in the average EV’s battery capacity in tandem last year, the overall growth in power-hours deployed would not have reached the 40% mark.