EV adoption in Europe – strong in the north, weak in the south

New numbers published over the weekend by Europe’s automotive associations reveal a mixed showing for the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), demonstrating a sluggish yet persistent increase, with high sales in the north and weaker sales in the south.

With the beginning of a new month, Europe’s automotive associations rush to publish their country’s new car sales numbers – although, no two organisations publish exactly the same categories, making it hard to form a comprehensive picture. What is able to be seen across all the data is a general growth across all electrified models, and specifically for BEVs.

In Norway, BEVs accounted for a record 97.2 per cent of all new cars sold in July, with only 272 of the total 9,563 cars registered and delivered through the month having an internal combustion engine (ICE) of some kind (including pure ICE and hybrids).

The share of BEVs in Sweden reached 34.9 per cent, with plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) taking a market share of 27.4 per cent. In Finland, BEVs took a market share of 24.4 per cent, while PHEVs accounted for 21.2 per cent.

In the Netherlands, BEVs finished July with a market share of 30.8 per cent, while PHEVs finished with 51.8 per cent. And in Denmark, without specifying a breakdown of engine type, “electric” vehicles took a 67.2 per cent share of all new cars on the roads in July.

In Portugal, BEVs boasted a market share of 20.7 per cent, 17 per cent in France, 18 per cent in Ireland, and a year-to-date market share of 32.8 per cent in Belgium.

Such growth is not replicated everywhere, however, with BEVs only accounting for 4.9 per cent of all new cars sold during July in Italy, and an 8.4 per cent share in Spain – though this was up an impressive 117 per cent over July 2024.

In terms of specific cars and carmakers, the data is even more sporadic, and only a few conclusions can be drawn.

The Kia EV3 was the most popular in the Netherlands with a market share of 9.1 per cent from 813 new registrations, and the second most popular EV in Ireland, behind the Volkswagen ID.4.

Pulling together what little specific data was available, Tesla only sold 460 in Belgium in July, 838 in Norway, only 163 in Sweden – down 88 per cent from the 1,001 in July 2024, 106 in Finland, only 280 Model Ys in the Netherlands, and did not appear in the top 10 passenger cars sold in July in Denmark.

Reporting separately on their own data, Reuters claimed that Tesla sales were down across several key European markets in July, despite the ongoing rollout of the revamped Model Y.