By the end of 2021, only one out of every 2,000 new cars sold in Viet Nam was electric. Four years later, 40 out of every 100 new cars sold were EVs, surpassing the United Kingdom, Germany, and most Western European countries, according to the IEA Global EV Outlook 2026. Viet Nam is the most striking example, but it is not alone.
Across the Asia-Pacific region, several markets are experiencing growth that has few parallels elsewhere. The latest IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 shows that EV sales in developing Southeast Asian countries more than doubled in 2025 alone. Here are five of the fastest-growing markets, ranked from fifth to first.
5. Australia
Australia was long considered an outlier among developed economies, lagging behind Europe and East Asia in EV adoption. Data from the Electric Vehicle Council show that combined BEV and PHEV sales reached 113,419 units in 2024, accounting for 9.5 percent of all new vehicle sales.
In 2025, sales climbed to 156,857 units, an increase of 38.7 percent year on year, while market share rose to 13.1 percent. PHEVs recorded the strongest growth, surging 134.5 percent in a single year.
VFACTS figures, cited by WhichCar, also show that by May 2026, BEVs alone had reached a record 20 percent monthly market share, the first time this milestone had been achieved in Australia's automotive market.
4. India
India ranks on this list not because of market share, but because of the pace of its expansion. According to the IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 and JMK Research, passenger EV sales increased from 82,563 units in 2023 to 99,004 in 2024, before reaching 165,000 in 2025, representing year-on-year growth of 67 percent.
Looking beyond passenger cars, the picture becomes even more striking. Autocar Professional reports that India sold a record 2.27 million EVs across all vehicle segments in 2025, including electric two-wheelers that account for more than half of the country's EV fleet.
All four major EV segments posted record sales, while the government continues to target a 30 percent EV share of new vehicle sales by 2030.
3. Malaysia
Malaysia's EV market expanded by more than 5,000 percent between 2021 and 2024, with sales rising from 278 units to 14,766 units in just three years. Figures from the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) attribute this surge to tax incentives introduced in January 2022, including import duty and excise tax exemptions for fully imported EVs.
The momentum continued. EV sales grew another 45.3 percent in 2024 before accelerating even further in 2025, when 30,848 units were sold, up 109 percent from the previous year.
During the first half of 2025 alone, sales had already increased 91.4 percent year on year. EV market share rose from below 2 percent in 2023 to around 4 percent in 2024 and continued climbing throughout 2025.
2. Indonesia
Indonesia experienced a rare contrast in 2024. While conventional vehicle sales declined by 20 percent, EV sales tripled, pushing the country's EV market share above 7 percent within a single year.
The IEA Global EV Outlook 2025 and the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) linked this growth to the government's import tax exemption for EV manufacturers committed to investing in local production, a policy that was quickly embraced by Chinese automakers.
One of them was BYD, which entered the Indonesian market in January 2024. Jakarta Globe reported that by April 2025, despite selling only electric vehicles, BYD had already become Indonesia's sixth-largest automotive brand by total sales.
EV adoption accelerated again in 2025, with market share exceeding 15 percent for the first time, overtaking the United States. According to the IEA Global EV Outlook 2026, about 75 percent of those EV sales were directly imported from China.
1. Viet Nam
Viet Nam recorded the region's most dramatic transformation. EVs accounted for less than 0.05 percent of new car sales in 2021, but by 2025 their share had climbed to around 40 percent, meaning roughly two out of every five new cars sold were electric.
The IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 notes that this placed Viet Nam ahead of the United Kingdom and nearly every Western European market.
The surge was driven almost entirely by VinFast, the Hanoi-based automaker that controlled about 99 percent of Viet Nam's EV market. Company data cited by Viet Nam Investment Review show that VinFast delivered 175,099 vehicles domestically in 2025, up from around 49,777 units in 2024, an increase of more than 250 percent in just one year.
Its VF3 became Viet Nam's best-selling vehicle across all brands and powertrains, while VinFast remained the country's top-selling automaker for 15 consecutive months, capturing 34.4 percent of the total vehicle market in 2025.
The IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 also shows that Viet Nam overtook Thailand as Southeast Asia's largest EV market in 2025.
