Gasoline-only vehicles accounted for just 49% of global new-car sales in the first half of 2026, the first time on record that their share has slipped below half. That marks a steep fall from 73% in 2021, according to Mobility Global data.

The decline does not mean most new cars are now fully electric. A large portion of the lost share has gone to hybrids, which still rely on combustion engines. On the figures, roughly 83% of new vehicles sold worldwide still carried some form of combustion engine, even as petrol-only models dropped below the halfway mark.

Battery-electric vehicles reached 6.87 million sales in the first six months of the year, up 12%, giving them a 17% share of the global market. Conventional hybrids did slightly better, hitting 7.27 million sales, up 10%, and taking 18% of new vehicles sold. The remainder came from diesel vehicles, plug-in hybrids and smaller alternative-fuel categories.

Petrol-only sales are also falling faster than the market as a whole. The global car market shrank by around 5% in the first half of 2026, but gasoline-only sales dropped more sharply, pushing their share down from 52% to 49% in a single year. China recorded the biggest fall, with petrol-only sales down 26%, while Europe declined 13%.

Electric growth stayed strong outside the United States. Europe posted a 32% increase to 1.81 million units, Southeast Asia jumped 81% to 350,000 units, and Oceania more than doubled to around 110,000 vehicles. The US has been a weaker spot for EV growth, though hybrids continue to expand there, accounting for a record 16.3% of US sales in the second quarter of 2026.

Higher oil and fuel prices have nudged more buyers towards vehicles with lower running costs. Yoshiaki Kawano, associate director at Mobility Global, said few buyers who switch to EVs later return to petrol-only cars or hybrids. He expects EV demand to be driven increasingly by consumer preference rather than subsidies as prices continue to fall.

The pace of the change is the real story. Petrol-only vehicles have gone from 73% of global sales in 2021 to 49% in the first half of 2026. Battery-electric vehicles still represent only 17% of the market, but the direction of travel is clear: the industry is steadily moving away from cars powered by petrol alone, with hybrids and EVs picking up the slack.