Battery electric cars account for nearly one in five of all new car sales in EU in 2025

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for a 17.4 per cent share of all new European Union car registrations in 2025, new figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

While total new EU car registrations increased by only 1.8 per cent in 2025 and remained well below pre-pandemic levels, sales of battery electric vehicles continued to grow, accounting for a 17.4 per cent market share, up from 13.6 per cent in 2024. And this despite a big fall in sales of Tesla EVs.

A total of 1,880,370 new BEVs were registered across the European Union in 2025, with the four largest markets – Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France – accounting for 62 per cent of them.

These four markets also unsurprisingly saw growth of their own, led by Germany which saw BEV sales increase by 43.2 per cent year-over-year, followed by the Netherlands (18.1 per cent), Belgium (12.6 per cent), and France (12.5 per cent).

There remains room for growth, however, according to the ACEA, if the region is to remain on track with the larger transition.

Overall, the largest segment for new car registrations in the EU in 2025 was hybrid-electrics, which captured 34.5 per cent of the market, while plug-in hybrid EVs (PHEVs) caught a 9.4 per cent share.

Conversely, the combined market share of petrol and diesel cars fell from 45.2 per cent in 2024 to 35.5 per cent in 2025, dropping by 18.7 per cent and with all major markets seeing decreases.

France saw the steepest drop in the registration of new petrol and diesel cars of 32 per cent, followed by Germany (21.6 per cent), Italy (18.2 per cent), and Spain (16 per cent).

The only significant drop was in Tesla sales, which fell from 326,525 in 2024 to 238,656 in 2025, as its share of the overall new car market slumped from 2.5 per cent to 1.8 per cent, the biggest fall of any car maker over the year.