00:00The global EV market just sent a very clear message, this is no longer one EV transition.
00:06It sounds confusing actually, because what's happening is there is now at least
00:10four different EV markets moving in completely different directions.
00:15It's bizarre. But here are the details. Hello my friends, welcome to the channel. I'm Sam Evans,
00:21you're watching The Electric Viking. Great to have you with us. In February 2026,
00:28global EV sales came in at just over 1.1 million vehicles. That was down 11% compared with February
00:35last year, partly because of the shorter month in China. There was less business days than there
00:40were the previous year. And also it was down though 11% from January. For the first two months of
00:46the
00:46year, global EV sales reached 2.2 million. That's 8% less than the same period in 2025. Now at
00:54first
00:55glance, that looks bad, down 8%, bad. A lot of people will see those numbers and say EV demand
01:02is collapsing. I can imagine it right now. But that is not what the data actually says.
01:10What the data says is this. Europe is growing strongly. North America is shrinking fast.
01:16China is going through a policy reset. China is always bad for the first two months of the year.
01:24And the rest of the world is exploding higher. Let's look at the numbers. Year to date through
01:31January and February, global EV sales 2.2 million, down 8%. China 1.1 million, down 26%. But car sales
01:40are down significantly in China as well. Europe, 600,000, up 21%. North America, 170,000, down 36%.
01:49Rest of the world, 370,000, up 84%. So if you get rid of China, Europe and North America,
01:58EV sales worldwide have grown by 84%. That is crazy. But that means China still accounts for about half of
02:08all global EV sales so far this year. Europe is roughly 27%. North America is only 8%. Even though
02:16North America accounts for about 30% of the entire global car market. The rest of the world is already
02:21close to 17%. This is a major shift in where EV momentum is actually coming from. Now let's start
02:30with Europe, because Europe is the growth engine right now. Europe's EV market rose another 1% month
02:38over month in February, and is now up 21% year to date. Germany is up 26%. France is up
02:4430%.
02:45Italy is a real eye-opener. Italy's EV sales jumped 23% month over month in February,
02:52giving it the country's strongest EV month ever. And Italy is now up an incredible 98%. The UK is up
02:59about
02:5932%. Now why is this happening? Well, more than anything, probably policy. Germany introduced a
03:10new subsidy program at the start of 2026. France kept support in place. Italy rolled out a major
03:17incentive scheme backed by the EU, with households able to get up to US $12,000, and small businesses
03:25up to about US $23,000. That is what the numbers show very clearly. When governments support EV
03:32adoption, sales respond. The same thing goes for fossil fuels, by the way. Now, compare that with
03:40North America. North America's EV market did rise 8% month over month in February, but that barely
03:46matters when sales are still down 36% year to date. Reuters says the region sold less than 90,000
03:53EVs in
03:54February, and that marked the fifth straight monthly decline. Five straight months of decline. And the
04:03US is doing most of the damage. According to the benchmark data cited by numerous sources, Ford's EV
04:10sales are down 70% so far this year. Honda is down 81%. Kia, I mean, you'd think Kia would
04:19be doing
04:19right? They've got heaps of models, while they're down 52%. That is not a small wobble. That is a
04:26major pullback. The slowdown is now hitting the supply chain too. SK On reportedly cut 37% of its
04:35workforce in North America at its Georgia battery plant. Reuters also says the end of the US EV tax
04:42credit scheme last September, combined with proposals from the Trump administration to weaken emissions
04:48rules, has helped push the North American market into retreat. So Europe is up because support is
04:56back. North America is down because support has been completely stripped away. That is not ideology.
05:03That is what the numbers actually say. Need expert advice on what car to buy, what solar system to get,
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05:37Now what about China? Well, China's EV market fell 32% in February year-over-year, with Reuters saying
05:44sales dropped to less than 500,000 vehicles in the month. Year-to-date, China is down 26%.
05:51That sounds dramatic. And it is. Reuters says it is China's biggest EV sales drop since the start of
05:59the pandemic. But I do not think this means China's EV story is in any way broken. It looks much
06:07more
06:08like a policy adjustment. China ended its EV purchase tax exemption at the end of last year and
06:13pooled funding for car trade-ins. Benchmark also noted the timing of Chinese New Year affected sales
06:22volumes. It did. Chinese New Year came in in February and it just basically meant there was a lot less
06:27days
06:28where people were actually buying vehicles. In other words, China has changed the rules and buyers are
06:34reacting. And here is the key point. Even while domestic sales cooled, Chinese EVs, their exports
06:42skyrocketed. Benchmark says Chinese automakers shipped more than half a million EVs overseas in the first two
06:50months of 2026. That's more than double from the same period last year. Reuters also says Chinese
06:57brands are expanding across Asia, Australia, and Europe, while competition at home is still really
07:05fierce. So that brings us to the most overlooked part of this entire story. What about the rest of the
07:14world? This category was up 78% in February and 84% year to date. That is incredible growth. A
07:25standard example is South Korea, where EV sales more than tripled month over month to more than 37,200
07:34vehicles in February. For the first time, EVs hit 30% market share in South Korea. Again, what changed?
07:43Well, subsidies. South Korea launched its 2026 EV subsidy program, designed to have, well, to favour
07:51smaller, more affordable EVs, and the market reacted immediately. So here is the real takeaway.
07:59The global EV market is not moving in one direction anymore. It is becoming brutally policy-sensitive
08:06and region-specific. Europe is accelerating, partly because incentives are working, but also because
08:13electric cars have become more affordable, as they are made and sold in larger numbers.
08:19North America is sinking, crashing, to be honest, because support has been pulled back. China is
08:27adjusting to new policy settings, but it's exporting aggressively. And the rest of the world is becoming a
08:33much bigger part of the story than most people realise. The most important number in this entire
08:38report, though, is not the 11% drop in February global sales. It is the gap between Europe at plus
08:4421% and North America at minus 36%. That is a huge gap. That tells you EV demand is not
08:54just about the
08:55product anymore. It is also about the policy environment, and not just the policy environment,
09:01but the media environment. What are the media telling people? The subsidy structure matters too,
09:07trade rules, and which governments are actually serious about transition. But I think a lot of
09:11people are being brainwashed by negative media stories, and that's probably part of this story too.
09:17If these trends continue, the biggest losers may not be EV makers. It may be the countries
09:25that choose to slow adoption while the rest of the world keeps on innovating and keeps on moving
09:30forwards. Let me know what you think in the comment section below. Do you agree or do you
09:36disagree? Let us know, and thank you for your support. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you on the next
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