Roland Berger: China drives global electrification

China is emerging as a key driving force behind the global transition to electric mobility, with the country's rapid EV adoption and advances in battery and charging technologies shaping the direction of the market, according to Roland Berger.

The consulting firm's EV Charging Index 2026 revealed that EVs, which refer to pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, accounted for one-quarter of global new-car sales last year, marking a new milestone in the worldwide shift toward electrification.

Global EV sales grew by more than 20 percent last year. Europe staged a strong recovery after sluggish growth in 2024, with EV sales rising by about one-third to 3.7 million units, lifting their share of new-car sales to nearly 30 percent.

The Asia-Pacific market seized the lion's share, with EV sales approaching 15 million units in 2025. About 90 percent of those sales came from China, where EVs accounted for half of new-car sales.

"China has become an important driving force in the global electrification transition," said Ron Zheng, global senior partner and Asia head of automotive practice at Roland Berger.

As EVs move from early adoption into mainstream consumption, Chinese automakers are continuing to influence the global competitive landscape through rapid product iteration, advances in power battery technology and increasingly optimized cost structures, Zheng said.

"The focus of competition in the next stage will shift from simply pursuing sales growth toward systematic improvements in high-power charging, charging efficiency and user experience," he said.

The shift in competitive priorities is already visible in the development of charging infrastructure.

Around 1.1 million public charging points were added globally in 2025, slightly fewer than a year earlier.

Roland Berger said the slowdown in additions does not necessarily indicate weaker investment, but instead reflects a more mature market in which the emphasis is moving from expanding the size of charging networks to improving their efficiency.

Fast and ultra-fast chargers with rated power of 150 kilowatts or more continued to gain share.

The trend is being driven both by consumers' growing demand for shorter charging times and by the stronger commercial appeal of high-power charging infrastructure, the report said.

China is also at the forefront of this shift. "Charging infrastructure is moving from scale expansion toward efficiency improvement," said Jack Zhuang, a partner at Roland Berger.

China's public charging network continues to lead the transition toward faster charging, with chargers rated at 22 kW or above accounting for nearly half of public charging points, Zhuang said.

Rather than simply adding more charging points, fast and ultra-fast charging facilities can significantly increase the service capacity of individual chargers and improve the operating efficiency of charging networks, he said.