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NEW YORK: Global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose 26 percent in September from a year ago to a record 2.1 million units, driven by strong demand in China and a late US tax-credit rush, market research firm Rho Motion said on Wednesday.
China accounted for about two-thirds of global sales with about 1.3 million units, while North America also hit a record as US buyers moved to secure incentives before they expired, said Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
China is the world’s biggest car market and accounts for more than half of global EV sales, which in Rho Motion’s data include battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. September, typically China’s busiest month for car buying, saw sales rise as shoppers looked to make the most of trade-in subsidies before some regions started phasing them out. US demand reflected a surge as buyers rushed to claim the expiring $7,500 EV tax credit, although demand is expected to decline sharply in the fourth quarter “as both consumers and businesses lose access to the federal incentives that have underpinned EV purchases,” Rho Motion said. Europe also hit a new high, helped by incentives in Germany and strong demand in Britain, while Tesla’s rollout of a lower-cost Model Y in Europe is expected to further intensify competition in coming months.

BY THE NUMBERS
Global sales of battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids rose 26 percent to a record 2.1 million units in September, Rho Motion data showed.
Chinese sales rose to about 1.3 million vehicles. European sales jumped 36 percent to 427,541 units, while North American sales climbed 66 percent to about 215,000. Sales in the rest of the world jumped 48 percent to 153,594 vehicles.

KEY QUOTE
“With the federal incentive gone, US demand is expected to drop sharply in the final quarter of the year,” Lester said.
Some automakers such as General Motors and Hyundai are trying to soften the blow by offering discounts or tapping dealer inventories, but overall production is being scaled back, he added. (Reporting by Jesus Calero; Editing by Alexander Smith)

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened trade penalties, including tariffs, against Spain, saying he is unhappy with its refusal to raise defense spending to 5 percent and calling the move disrespectful to NATO. “I’m very unhappy with Spain. They’re the only country that didn’t raise their number up to 5 percent... so I’m not happy with Spain,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I was thinking of giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I think I may do that,” Trump added.
Trump has repeatedly pushed NATO members to spend more on their own defense and cast doubt on Washington’s willingness to come to the aid of members who do not spend enough. He said last week while meeting Finland’s president that NATO should consider throwing Spain out of the alliance over its refusal to agree to the new commitment.
Citing the great threat posed by Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, NATO members have argued that their previous spending commitment of 2 percent of GDP is no longer sufficient.
Spain was the only member of the 32-nation alliance not to commit to increasing military spending to 5 percent of GDP.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez secured a last-minute exemption at the time, saying Spain would only spend up to 2.1 percent, which he called “sufficient and realistic.”
Madrid, which joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1982, has argued it compensates for the lower spending with strong troop contributions to NATO missions, including deployments in Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkiye.