Chinese EVs boom in developing markets, but charging networks lag

BEIJING

The war in Iran has helped reshape the global electric vehicle market, giving Chinese automakers an opening across the developing world as soaring fuel prices push drivers towards electric vehicles, even as charging infrastructure lags behind a wave of imports.

The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted shipping of about a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquified natural gas, first hitting Asia, followed by Africa.

This shock accelerated a trend that was already spreading across the developing world. In April, global exports of Chinese EVs hit a record $9.4 billion, according to an analysis by think tank Ember of Chinese customs data. Shipments surged to countries such as Australia, Brazil and regions like Southeast Asia and East Africa.

China exported about 435,000 passenger EVs and plug-in hybrids in May, more than double from a year earlier, according to the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

As fuel costs rise, more drivers are switching to EVs to save money, while governments from Laos to Ethiopia are embracing electrification to curb oil imports and reduce costs of fuel subsidies.

But faster EV adoption is outpacing the expansion of charging networks. Governments and state-owned utilities in Africa are taking a leading role in building them — a model analysts say could help other emerging markets, like Asia, speed the shift away from fossil fuels.

When a nation lacks sufficient charging infrastructure and EV fleet size, it is a “classic chicken-and-egg problem” regarding what comes first, said Paul Gong, head of UBS bank’s China automotive in-dustry research.

“At that stage, government support for infrastructure could help accelerate adoption,” he said.

In Southeast Asia, imports of Chinese EVs have surged in Thailand, Laos and the Philippines. In May, Laos banned the import of fuel-powered vehicles for the rest of 2026 to cut oil import costs and en-courage the EV shift.

Africa imported around 44,000 Chinese EVs in 2025, a 130 percent jump from the year before.

One in four new cars sold worldwide last year were electric, according to the International Energy Agency.

Global electric car sales are expected to grow further in 2026 and reach 23 million, making up nearly 30 percent of all cars sold worldwide, according to the IEA’s latest EV outlook.

Chinese automakers supplied around 60 percent of electric cars sold globally, the IEA said. They have also been targeting Europe, Africa and Latin America.
But while EV imports are booming, charging infrastructure is still lagging even as installations have accelerated.

Thailand, for instance, has around 4,600 public charging locations to serve more than 424,000 bat-tery EVs and plug-in hybrids, according to the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand.

In Malaysia, public fast chargers were up more than 70% in 2025, according to the IEA, after the gov-ernment rolled out incentives including a tax break for operators of charging points that meet certain investment criteria.

Ethiopia, which has banned non-EV imports, had only around a dozen charging stations as of mid-2025, and the government estimates it needs more than 1,170 stations to meet rising demand.

“In developing markets, affordability can accelerate the shift, but the pace of adoption will still de-pend heavily on infrastructure, power reliability and use case,” said Chris Liu, with the technology research and advisory group Omdia.

African countries also are increasingly turning to state-owned utilities to build EV charging networks, betting public investment can solve one of the biggest obstacles to electric vehicle adoption.

“You need charging infrastructure to support an even larger fleet size,” said Gong, the auto analyst from UBS.