Ember expands its transport focus as electric vehicles become a global energy security tool

London, 14 October – Ember, the global energy think tank, today launches a monthly electric vehicle (EV) sales tracker as it announces an expansion of its data & analysis to cover transport electrification. Building on its existing research into electrification, EV adoption, oil demand and energy security, Ember will deepen regional and global understanding of how the shift to electric transport is reshaping economies and the wider energy system. 

“Ember was built to track the rapid transformation of the power system,” said Phil McDonald, co-founder and CEO of Ember. “It has increasingly become clear that the electrotech revolution reaches far beyond electricity generation, and transport is where that matters most for energy security. Now Ember is bringing the same open, rigorous data to electric transport that we’ve brought to electricity, and showing decisionmakers that economic and energy security are unlocked by electrification.”

Oil remains a major source of vulnerability for countries that depend on imports. Around 79% of the world’s population lives in an oil-importing country, and every $10 increase in the price of a barrel adds roughly $160 billion a year to the global net import bill. Ember’s analysis in March in response to the Hormuz crisis found that replacing oil used in transport with EVs could cut global fossil fuel imports by a third, saving around $600 billion a year.

Electric vehicles are part of a wider shift towards electrotech, including solar and batteries, that is making energy more efficient, less dependent on imported fuel and less exposed to price volatility. EVs use energy far more efficiently than petrol and diesel cars and are increasingly cost-competitive with them.

Ember has already published a growing body of analysis on electric vehicles, covering their adoption across countries, the policies supporting their growth and their role in the wider energy transition. The EV leapfrog showed emerging markets overtaking several advanced economies on EV sales share. Its research on India’s road transport electrification examined how aligning EV charging with renewable generation can support the transition. The China Energy Transition Review 2026 found that electric trucks accounted for 26% of new truck sales in China in 2025, as electrification extended beyond passenger cars. Ember has also analysed China’s record EV exports as demand in ASEAN grew. 

Ember’s work on electrified transport is supported by the team from New Automotive, which joined Ember in December 2025, bringing its experience in EV data and policy. Since its launch, New AutoMotive has worked to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and played a key role in advocating for the UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate.

The new monthly EV sales tracker launched today builds on this work, bringing together sales data from 56 countries and showing how EV adoption is changing over time. By linking sales to the oil displaced by electric vehicles, it also helps users understand the implications of the transition for oil demand and energy security. The latest data show that electric car fleets have displaced enough oil to save oil-importing countries $20 billion in crude oil costs in the six months since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.

“The shift to electric vehicles is advancing rapidly in many parts of the world, including emerging markets where several countries have already overtaken the US in EV sales share,” said Euan Graham, senior energy analyst at Ember. “With the new tracker, we want to make it easier for policymakers and others to keep pace with these changes, while building on our existing research to examine what is driving the transition and how more countries can accelerate it.”

Ember’s expanding work on transport electrification

In the coming years, Ember will continue to expand its work on transport electrification, looking beyond the pace of EV adoption to what this technology shift means for economies and the wider energy system. This includes bringing greater attention to the policies, investments and industrial strategies that have helped countries unleash the full potential of electric mobility and what others can learn from them.

Ember’s work will also connect transport electrification to the wider shift towards an economy powered by clean electricity. EVs can become part of a more integrated energy system, while the technologies and industries developing around electrification can create opportunities beyond transport, from grid flexibility to industrial automation. This shift is being embraced by many economies as they seek to secure their energy sovereignty, reduce exposure to imported fuel and price volatility, and provide affordable, stable energy for all.