The global strategic consulting firm Roland Berger has just published the EV Charging Index 2026, which positions Portugal among the world’s most advanced markets in the adoption of electric mobility. Among the 34 markets analyzed, the report places the country in seventh place in the adoption of electric vehicles, which already account for 35% of sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles in 2025.
According to the study now presented, the transition to electric mobility continues to accelerate, albeit at different paces across regions. Europe and Asia-Pacific continue to lead this evolution, while markets such as North America and Japan have registered a slowdown in adoption.
Despite these differences, the global trend remains positive, with electric vehicle sales growing by more than 20% in the last year, to more than 21 million units, already representing one in four newly sold vehicles. In 2025, the global fleet of electric vehicles surpassed 73 million units and already accounts for more than 5% of automobiles and light commercial vehicles in circulation in the analyzed markets. Roland Berger concludes that electrification continues to scale, solidifying as a structural transformation of the automotive sector worldwide.
“Portugal is already among the most advanced markets in the adoption of electric mobility, with penetration levels higher than those of several larger European economies. As electrification scales up, the main challenge becomes ensuring that the infrastructure keeps pace with this growth. The expansion of fast and ultrafast charging will be decisive to sustain the market’s development in the coming years,” says Pedro Galhardas, Managing Partner of Roland Berger Portugal.
Growth in Electric Vehicles, Infrastructure Priorities Changing
The public charging network continued to expand in 2025, reaching 6.4 million public charging points in the analyzed markets. However, around 1.1 million new points were installed, below the around 1.3 million registered in each of the two previous years. According to the study, this slowdown mainly reflects the growing maturity of the more developed markets and not a slowdown in electric mobility.
At the same time, the evolution of infrastructure is increasingly concentrating on charging speed. The share of fast chargers continues to rise across all analyzed regions and, in China, these already account for almost half of the public network. In Europe, more than half of fast chargers are currently ultrafast, a figure that has doubled in the last five years.
This shift aligns with user expectations. According to the report, 47% of drivers identify charging times and available power as the least satisfactory aspects of the public charging experience, while 45% consider that the available public infrastructure is still insufficient.
China Continues to Set the Pace of the Electric Transition
China reached, in 2025, a penetration rate of 50% in new electric vehicle sales, a milestone that places it among the world’s most advanced markets in the adoption of electric mobility.
The report identifies Chinese manufacturers as one of the main drivers of transformation of the sector, highlighting the impact on reducing the costs of electric vehicles, on expanding into new markets, and on changing the competitive dynamics in regions such as Europe, Southeast Asia, and Turkey. China was also responsible for about nine in ten electric vehicle sales recorded in the Asia-Pacific region in 2025.
