The COP30 ZEV report says India sold 691,300 e-3Ws in 2024, beating China for a second year. With sales set to top 750,000 in 2025, India will retain its lead.
21 Nov 2025 | 6039 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
The COP 30 ZEV report, released at COP30, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Belém, Brazil from November 10-21, 2025, has confirmed what was already known – that India is the world’s leading market for electric 3-wheelers. The report states that India commanded 57% of global e-3W ...
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The COP 30 ZEV report, released at COP30, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Belém, Brazil from November 10-21, 2025, has confirmed what was already known – that India is the world’s leading market for electric 3-wheelers. The report states that India commanded 57% of global e-3W sales in CY2024 and highlights India’s rapid shift toward clean mobility, positioning it as a key driver of the global transition to zero-emission transport systems.
Prepared by the Accelerating to Zero Coalition, for which the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) serves as secretariat, the COP30 Progress Update: Driving Progress on the Zero-Emission Vehicle Transition finds that India’s policy-driven transformation has played “a decisive role in achieving price parity between electric and conventional models, fuelling large-scale adoption and private sector investment across last-mile mobility.” The report highlights India’s rapid shift toward clean mobility, positioning it as a key driver of the global transition to zero-emission transport systems.
In May this year, Autocar Professional had broken the news of India beating China for the second year in a row to be the world’s e-3W market. In CY2024, with record sales of nearly 700,000 units and 18% YoY growth. In comparison, China sold around 300,000 units and posted a YoY decline of 6 percent. This also means that total global sales of electric 3Ws last year were around 1.21 million units.
The Indian e-3W market is maintaining the same strong growth it displayed last year in CY2025. In the first 10 months of this year, domestic market retail sales between January 1 and November 20, 2025 have already crossed 680,000 units. This includes highest-ever monthly sales of 70,604 units in October. With another 40 days to go before the year ends, India e-3W Inc should surpass the 740,000 to 750,000-unit milestone for the first time in annual sales.
The Indian e-3W industry registered growth in each of the 12 months of CY2024 but missed the 700,000 sales milestone by just 8,694 units.
The COP 30 ZEV report points out that the “transition has been powered by a strong collaboration between government and the private sector, particularly in last-mile delivery, where companies are adopting EVs for cost savings and working with rental partners to build out the ecosystem. By focusing incentives on the vehicles that dominate its roads and last-mile logistics, India is creating a self-reinforcing cycle of market acceleration.” The PM E-Drive program has been instrumental in lowering the upfront cost of electric 2- and 3-wheelers, making them price-competitive with ICE equivalents.
The report adds, “The rapid global expansion of EV charging networks has been driven by supportive policies, with Europe’s reliance on deployment targets and India’s use of targeted incentives demonstrating two effective and scalable models.”
Global uptake remains resilient despite policy shifts
Despite recent policy adjustments in some advanced economies, global EV adoption continues to grow. EVs accounted for 18% of global light-duty vehicle sales in CY2024, up from 14% in CY2023, reflecting strong momentum across emerging markets. France, Spain, and Croatia expanded purchase incentives, while the United Kingdom and Canada refined their ZEV mandates. Global charging infrastructure also crossed 5 million public charging points, doubling since 2022.
India maintained steady growth with a 23% year-on-year rise in light-duty EV sales (2023–2024) and a 2.9% EV sales share in the first half of 2025. The report credits the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) and India’s FAME and PM E-Drive programs as key policy drivers accelerating global progress toward zero-emission mobility
“Two-wheelers accounted for more than three-quarters of all motor vehicles sold in India last year. In fact, two- and three-wheelers together made up nearly 80% of total vehicle sales. India is rightly targeting the electrification of its largest vehicle segment and the results are beginning to show. The government of India, through the PM e-DRIVE scheme, is now going a step further by launching a dedicated programme to accelerate the electrification of medium- and heavy-duty trucks. These vehicles represent only about 3% of the total vehicle stock but contribute nearly 44% of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. This shift in focus is both timely and welcome,” said Amit Bhatt, India Managing Director, ICCT.
“This year’s edition of the COP Progress Update shows that despite political uncertainty in some established markets, the ZEV transition is accelerating at an unprecedented rate in emerging markets,” said Tim Dallmann, International Partnerships Program director at the ICCT. “Countries like India, Chile, and Vietnam are showing to the world that this transition is beneficial to the economy, while also supporting broader climate goals.”
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