In the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) most recent World Energy Outlook, a couple of technologies stood out for their unprecedented growth rates. Despite the lasting disruptions of the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and lingering supply chain and economic challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the IEA said that the rapid emergence of solar photovoltaics (PV) and electric vehicles (EVs) were quickly becoming a foundation of a new clean energy economy.

According to the IEA, one in 25 cars sold globally in 2020 was electric. By 2023, that number had risen to one in five cars. In the U.S., a similar story of rising demand for EVs has taken shape despite a rash of news stories about slowing demand. In each of the first three quarters of 2023, EV sales broke records, and annual sales were forecast to surpass one million for the first time ever. In California, one in four new car sales are now EVs, and the state beat its target of 1.5 million new EV sales almost two years early.