Jan 14 (Reuters) - Global sales of fully electric and

plug-in hybrid vehicles rose by a quarter last year to over 17

million cars, helped by a fourth consecutive month of record

sales in December as China continued to grow and Europe

stabilised, data showed on Tuesday.

Incentives and emission targets pushed EV sales in China and

aided Britain in overtaking Germany as Europe's biggest

battery-electric market in 2024, research firm Rho Motion said.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Electric car makers look into 2025 as a transformative year

as China's sales growth slows, new emissions targets are setting

off in Europe, and questions surround potential U.S. policy

changes under the incoming Trump administration.

BY THE NUMBERS

Global sales of fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids

rose 25.6% year-on-year to 1.9 million in December, albeit

slowing for a second consecutive month, the Rho Motion data

showed.

Sales in China jumped 36.5% to 1.3 million vehicles in

December, and totalled 11 million for the whole of 2024.

In the United States and Canada, EV sales rose 8.8% to 0.19

million in December, while Europe reported sales of 0.31

million, up 0.7% from the same month of 2023.

In the rest of the world, December sales rose by 26.4%.

KEY QUOTES

"The removal of subsidies in Germany had a devastating

impact on the whole European market, if the US follows suit, we

may see the same there," Rho Motion said in a note.

Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester, commenting on

November data following European Union's introduction of tariffs

at the end of October, told Reuters that there was "no clear

downturn in sales" of major Chinese-made EV models.

CONTEXT

An EU filing showed last week that automakers facing tougher

CO2 emissions rules were planning to pool together and buy

carbon credits from electric vehicle companies including Tesla

and Polestar to avoid hefty fines.

Meanwhile China, in a bid to promote EV adoption while

reviving economic growth, extended last Wednesday the auto

trade-in subsidies into 2025 as part of an expanded consumer

trade-in scheme.