Top 10 best-selling electric cars globally: how are Tesla, Volkswagen, Kia, Renault

When it comes to electric cars, most of us think of Tesla, but the market has become as dynamic as possible in recent years, and the newest top 10 electric cars come with a few surprises.

JATO Dynamics has published the latest edition of its annual ranking entitled “The Global Electric Car Sales 2021 in Numbers”. According to the document, the interest in electric cars has exploded in the last few years and seems to double from one year to the next. As a reference, in 2019 we were talking about only 1.4 million fully electric cars sold globally. In 2020, the value increased to 2.01 million. The biggest surprise came in 2021, when in the end, we were talking about 4.2 million such registered cars.

What’s happening in the electric car market

The doubling of sales from one year to the next was mainly due to the surprising interest in this class of cars in China. Tesla also helped expand its production capacity, and Volkswagen expanded its electrical portfolio.

In China alone, 2.3 million vehicles were sold in 2021, up from 910,000 a year earlier. Sales of electric vehicles in Europe in the same time unit jumped from 720,000 to 1.218 million. In North America (USA and Canada), the increase was slightly lower, from 294,000 to 522,000.

Without a doubt, the market leader in terms of electric cars for 2021 is Tesla, with 907,000 units. Volkswagen is in second place, with all brands in the group reaching the threshold of 480,000 units. The Chinese could not miss the podium and occupy the third position through the alliance SAIC – GM – Wuling, the giant behind 424,000 units, only for the Chinese market.

In the next places, up to 10, are the Chinese from BYD (292,000 units), the Koreans from Hyundai – Kia (227,000 units), the Stellantis group (180,300 units), Great Wall (136,000 units), Renault (130,200 units), GAC (129,000 units) and Changan (105,000 units).