China just killed the fossil fuel car. The country is set to sell more than 12 million electric cars this year, compared to fewer than 11 million old-style cars, new figures show.
In Hong Kong, two thirds of new cars registered are electric vehicles, according to a separate source.
There’s global agreement that mass market polluting cars should be pushed into its death spiral, and many countries set 2035 as the date for making electric cars the majority vehicle in sales numbers—but China has hit the target 10 years early.
With cringemaking irony, some western nations are having difficulty reaching their targets because they have implemented protectionist policies to prevent motorists having access to China’s affordable electric cars.
The figures on car sales in China come from 2025 estimates supplied to the Financial Times by four investment banks and research groups, and the Hong Kong figure is from the city’s government records, as supplied to Fridayeveryday, a media group.
This part of the world is far ahead of the rest of the planet in bidding farewell to the polluting internal combustion engine, analysts said. In the west, Norway is often quoted as the country leading the way, but with a population of just five million, it is equivalent to just one Chinese city.
Critics regularly push the point that China is still a heavy user of coal—but omit the fact that global environmental bodies have agreed that it is only fair to allow developing countries several years leeway in cutting coal usage. China still has about 200 million poor people.
Robert Liew, director of Asia-Pacific renewables research at Wood Mackenzie, told the FT that China is serious about cultivating clean energy sources: “They want to electrify everything. No other country comes close to China.”