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Electric vehicle sales rebounded strongly in Germany in 2025, official data showed Tuesday, with Chinese manufacturers making inroads from a low base in the EU's largest economy despite tariffs.EV sales rose 43.2% last year to 545,142 in total, the KBA federal transport authority said, representing 19.1% of all new cars sold.Chinese EV giant BYD — which last year overtook Elon Musk's Tesla to become the world's largest electric carmaker — saw its German sales rise over 700% to more than 23,000 cars, giving it 0.8% of the overall auto market."International vehicle manufacturers with affordable battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids have contributed disproportionately to growth in these segments," said Imelda Labbe, head of the VDIK foreign carmakers' lobby in Germany.The European Union in 2024 introduced higher tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars, alleging that they benefitted from unfair subsidies.That has not stopped sales of Chinese cars rising across the bloc, with the country's carmakers keen to crack foreign markets amid cut-throat competition at home.Rising EV sales are also some rare good news for Germany's beleaguered carmakers, which have invested heavily in the technology in recent years, and are seeking to comply with European Union environmental rules.Though the European Commission in December proposed scrapping a planned 2035 ban on new combustion-engine vehicles, carmakers would still have to cut emissions by 90% from 2021 levels under its latest plan, and need to see dramatic sales growth.The rise in EV sales last year comes after a fall of almost 30% in 2024 following the withdrawal of government subsidies, and Germany's electric car market is still smaller than optimists had hoped for."We haven't seen a real boom yet," EY analyst Constantin Gall said. "The hoped-for surge in e-mobility in Germany is proving to be much more protracted and difficult than expected."After the decline in the market in 2024, the government said in December it would introduce subsidies again.Some motorists will be able to benefit from €5,000 ($5,855) for the purchase of new EVs or hybrids so long as their components are largely made in Germany.But industry figures say that better charging infrastructure and cheaper power would be needed to really boost EVs and warned that the planned subsidy would have limited impact."The state subsidies will only be available to households on low and middle incomes," Gall said. "But it is high-earners who tend to buy new electric cars."Weak sales at home have compounded the challenges facing Germany's car industry.It was already contending with the costs of investing in EVs and cratering sales in key market China even before US President Donald Trump last year slapped tariffs on cars and auto parts.Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, is in the process of cutting 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 under a deal reached with unions in a bid to slash costs.Overall car sales in Germany rose just 1.4% last year to about 2.9mn vehicles, the KBA said — roughly 750,000 fewer than were sold in 2019 before the Covid pandemic and Germany's economy sank into stagnation."The weak economy, increasing job insecurity and the multitude of political, social and economic crises are taking their toll," Gall said. 

The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) won the "Gartner Eye on Innovation Awards for Power and Utilities" for the "Smart Electric Vehicle Charging Platform Project - Phase Two", which represents a qualitative leap in enhancing digital transformation and sustainability in the State of Qatar. In a press release today, Kahramaa said the Smart Electric Vehicle Charging Platform project came as a response to challenges faced by electric vehicle users, where there was fragmentation in charging applications, low usage rates, in addition to the lack of coordination among service providers, and the absence of vital data necessary for making evidence-based decisions on actual usage. Kahramaa launched the first phase of the platform in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to create a unified platform that brings together all charging service providers. The project was developed in the second phase to provide users with the platform's capability for immediate access to all stations, with direct information about their availability and booking options, along with providing accurate usage analytics that contribute to raising operational efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. President of Kahramaa, Engineer Abdulla bin Ali Al Dheyab, said: "We have succeeded in unifying the user experience and providing accurate data that supports national policies, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. Choosing our project as a semi-finalist in the Gartner Global Innovation Award confirms Kahramaa's commitment to leadership in digital transformation and sustainability and reflects our team's efforts in providing innovative solutions that serve the community and support the state's goals of reducing carbon emissions." The project began with a pilot phase in 2024, and the second phase was developed in 2025. Among the most prominent results were more than 2,980 application downloads; integration of more than 130 electric charging stations; saving more than 140,000 liters of fuel, reducing more than 0.3 million kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions; accelerating the station-finding process by 80%; achieving report accuracy exceeding 95% for analytics; and raising the level of coordination among service providers, users, and regulatory entities. The "Gartner Eye on Innovation Awards for Power and Utilities" is one of the most important global awards in the field of digital innovation for the energy and utilities sector, where the 2025 edition witnessed record participation from institutions around the world, with competition divided into three main regions: the Americas, Europe, Kahramaa obtained the semi-finalist position at the Asia and Pacific region level, in an achievement that reflects Qatar's leadership in the fields of digital transformation and sustainability and strengthens its position as a regional hub for innovation in clean energy.

Electric vehicle (EV) sales in South Korea soared nearly 50% year-on-year during the first eight months of 2025, fueled by the introduction of new models.According to data released by the Korea Automobile & Mobility Association, a total of 142,456 EVs were sold between January and August, a sharp increase from 95,988 units during the same period last year.Electric vehicles made up 12.7% of all new car registrations, up from 8.9% a year earlier a rise of 3.8 percentage points.Domestic manufacturers led the charge, with sales of locally produced EVs climbing 48.2% to 86,777 units, accounting for 60.9% of the total EV market.Imported EVs also posted strong growth, with sales jumping 48.6% to 55,679 units. Notably, over 42,000 of those imported vehicles were made in China, underscoring the growing influence of Chinese automakers in the South Korean market.