Recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly stated on social media, “China is rapidly moving towards a solar/electric future, and the demand for oil or natural gas will be greatly reduced.”
Musk’s comments were in response to a set of official data released by “World of Statistics,” which showed that as of 2025, electric vehicles accounted for 12% of China’s total car ownership.
At the same time, China’s fuel sales decreased by 5.7% year-on-year in 2025. This data intuitively reflects the profound changes in China’s transportation energy structure.
Looking at broader industry data, the pace of China’s new energy transition is accelerating.
In 2025, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China reached 12.809 million units, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%, with the penetration rate in the passenger vehicle market exceeding 50%.
Meanwhile, sales of traditional fuel vehicles declined by 9% year-on-year, and overall fuel oil demand for the full year dropped by approximately 5.7%, marking the first substantial negative growth in gasoline consumption in history.
On the energy production side, China’s solar industry continues to maintain a global leading position.
In 2025, China’s newly installed solar capacity continued to rise, significantly reducing electricity costs and further enhancing the economic competitiveness of electric vehicles.
This synergistic development model of “solar + electric” is fundamentally reshaping China’s energy consumption structure.
Musk has consistently been optimistic about China’s new energy industry, having previously pointed out multiple times that the scale and technological advantages China has established in the fields of photovoltaics, energy storage batteries, and electric vehicles are “remarkable.”
