Gasoline-only vehicles slipped below half of global new-car sales for the first time ever during the first six months of 2026, arriving at 49 percent of the market. A year earlier, that figure stood three percentage points higher.

Gas-only cars held 73 percent of the market as recently as 2021.

The decline varied sharply by region. China and Europe posted much steeper drops in internal-combustion-based vehicles than the global average, while hybrids and battery-electric vehicles kept adding ground. The figures mark a clear break from the decades when the gasoline engine dominated new-car sales almost everywhere.

Pure gasoline vehicles, meaning cars with no electrified assistance of any kind, totaled 20.25 million units sold globally from January through June 2026. That is a 10 percent drop year over year.

The 49 percent figure excludes hybrids entirely. Regular hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and full battery-electric vehicles all count separately, so the number is not measuring electrification as a whole. It is measuring how much ground the traditional gas-only engine has lost on its own.

China and Europe drove most of the shift. Sales of internal-combustion-based vehicles decreased about 26 percent in China and roughly 13 percent in Europe during the same six months, both steeper declines than the global average. Those regions already have deeper electrified penetration than markets where gasoline-only models still dominate new registrations.

A six-month snapshot is not a forecast. Sales patterns can shift with fuel prices, incentives, or new model launches in the back half of any year. Nothing here guarantees gasoline-only cars stay under half the market through December.

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