Gas-Only Cars Fall Below Half of Global Sales for the First Time Ever

Car buyers around the world took home 20.25 million new vehicles that run on gasoline alone between January and June 2026, according to data from research firm Mobility Global reported by Nikkei. That was 49 percent of global new-vehicle sales, down from 52 percent a year earlier and 73 percent in 2021, and the first half-year on record in which gasoline-only models held less than half the market since cars spread widely in the 1920s.

The trigger was fuel prices. High oil prices from the conflict in the Middle East pushed gasoline and diesel to records in many markets, and buyers answered by choosing hybrids and electrics. Battery-electric sales in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway, rose 52.2 percent year over year in August, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. In Germany, the largest car market in Europe, battery-electric sales surged 75 percent in August as gasoline reached an all-time high of 2.31 euros per liter, roughly 10 dollars per gallon, and electric sales in France more than doubled.

The United States is the exception that proves the rule. Regular gasoline averaged 4.354 dollars per gallon in the week of October 5, up 1.23 dollars from a year earlier, according to the United States Energy Information Administration, but American buyers no longer get a federal tax credit for an electric car and Washington has repealed the rules that pushed automakers to sell more of them. The result is a split world: outside the United States, expensive fuel is accelerating electrification, while American buyers are mostly paying at the pump.