Electric Cars Pass a Crucial Tipping Point in 23 Countries

Once 5% of new car sales go fully electric, everything changes — according to a Bloomberg Green analysis of the latest EV adoption curves.

Tesla’s Cybertruck could help jolt US EV sales on the aggressive path of early-adopter countries

Convincing everyone to adopt a new technology can be a slog at first. The humble microwave oven, for example, took two decades of lukewarm sales to reach just a tenth of US households. But then came the 1980s, and quicker than you could say “Hot Pockets,” microwaves had spread to nearly every kitchen.

That fast part of the technology adoption curve is happening now with electric vehicles, according to a Bloomberg Green analysis of adoption rates around the world. When we first completed this analysis a year ago, 19 countries had passed what’s become a critical EV tipping point: 5% of new car sales powered only by electricity. This threshold signals the start of mass adoption, when technological preferences rapidly flip. Since then, five more countries have made the leap.