(Reuters) - Global electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales in January rose 18% year on year, as growth in Europe and the United States outpaced China for the first time since last February, research firm Rho Motion said on Wednesday.

The European car market started the year on a strong footing as CO2 emission targets came into effect in the European Union, while holidays during the Chinese New Year led to a 43% month-on-month drop in the country's sales, Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester said.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Governments worldwide are adopting different policies to encourage EV adoption while trade tensions and slowing car markets foreshadow plant closures and thousands of job losses.

China extended its auto trade-in subsidies into 2025 as part of an expanded consumer trade-in scheme in January, to avert a slowdown in EV sales while reviving economic growth.

Europe launched in the same month new consultations on CO2 emission targets with auto sector executives, unions and interest groups.

BY THE NUMBERS

Global sales of fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) rose 17.7% year on year to 1.3 million in January, the third consecutive month of slowing growth, the Rho Motion data showed.

Sales in China were up 11.8% year-on-year to 0.7 million vehicles in the month. 

Europe reported sales of 0.25 million, up 21% from the same month of 2024.

Among the continent's main markets, France dropped by 52% due to the introduction of a weight tax on PHEVs, while Germany saw an increase of over 40% partly due to low figures in January 2024, when EV subsidies came to an abrupt end, Rho Motion said.

In the United States and Canada, EV sales rose 22.1% to 0.13 million in January.

In the rest of the world, January sales rose by 50%.

On a monthly basis, global sales dropped by 35%, dragged by a 43% drop in China compared with December.

(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)