China's mammoth electric vehicle industry is not just impacting the country's auto sector, but also national fuel sales patterns.
Rapidly-expanding charging infrastructure has encouraged tens of millions of Chinese to hit the road for the Golden Week holidays in their EVs this year, which in turn has reversed the usual boom in gasoline sales at this time of year.
In fact, China's gasoline demand is estimated to have fallen 9% in October on the year to 12.5 million tons, with average daily use roughly flat with September, according to Chinese consultancy Sublime China Information (SCI).
The sagging holiday demand is symptomatic of the broader decline in Chinese fuel use stemming from wider EV adoption, heralding the approaching end of its decades-long role as the main driving force of new global oil demand.
Gasoline consumption in the world's biggest importer of crude peaked in 2023 and the research unit of state oil company Sinopec expects demand to fall more than 4% this year from 2024.
During the first nine months of the year, EVs and hybrids made up almost half of all new car sales.
A fifth of the 63.5 million car trips during the eight-day holiday break were in electric or hybrid vehicles, the transport ministry says.
Daily use of electricity by charging stations, a proxy for EV use, rose 45.73% during Golden Week this year, versus 2024.
China's EV impact also extends overseas, with exports of Chinese EVs scaling record highs in almost every continent so far this year.
Belgium has been the top overall market for Chinese EV exports so far in 2025, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.
However, the fastest-growing region for Chinese EV imports so far in 2025 has been Africa, which has posted a 184% jump in imports compared to 2024, to more than $1 billion in sales.
The wide span in China's EV export reach shows how well connected the sector is around the world, despite being a relatively new participant in the global car export arena.
That said, China's policymakers have opted to cut subsidies and state support for the bloated EV sector in its upcoming five-year plan, which sets the industrial agenda from 2026 to 2030.
Lower subsidies are expected to trigger a much needed downsizing throughout the EV space in China, and over time lead to lower EV exports from the country. Check out my recent column for more details on the scale and span of China's EV exports so far this decade.
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