Global electric vehicles sales more than doubled last year to 6.6 million units, putting the total fleet of light duty EVs at around 16m units, the IEA said Tuesday.

Sales hit 3.4 million in China, 2.3m in Europe and 0.7m in the US. Another 300,000 EVs were sold elsewhere in 2021. That translates into annual increases of 183.3% in China, 64.28% in Europe, and 133.3% in the US, Kallanish reports.

The record sales put the global EV market share at 9% last year, up from 4.1% in 2020 and 2.5% in 2019. A decade ago, EV sales stood at around 130,000 units, which is now achieved roughly weekly, the IEA notes.

This “impressive” growth comes as conventional car markets around the world struggled with the effects of the pandemic and supply shortages. The IEA believes all the net growth in global car sales last year came from electric cars, with EV monthly sales at least 50% higher than the corresponding month in 2020.

However, the electrification of fleets isn’t happening homogenously, the IEA data shows. Market penetration in major global car markets such as Brazil, India and Indonesia still remain below 1% -- mostly because of EV prices and lack of charging infrastructure. EV share in Japan is also below 1% and has been for the past few years, while South Korea now has an 8% market share after two years without any growth.

Tesla ranked top-5 best-seller last year with 839,000 sales. Volkswagen Group followed close with 716,000 units. BYD hit 503,000, of which all but 3,000 were sold in China. GM came next with 449,000 EV sold and Stellantis with 379,000.

As expected, European sales were led by Volkswagen Group and Stellantis; Chinese sales by BYD and GM; and US sales majorly by Tesla with 340,000 EVs.