While new car registrations across the European Union declined by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2025, electric vehicles continued to gain share, new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has found.
According to the ACEA, battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 15.2% of total registrations in the first quarter of the year, up from 12% in Q1 2024.
Elsewhere, hybrid-electric vehicles accounted for 35.5% of registrations, putting them almost on a par with petrol and diesel registrations, which accounted for 38.3% – down from 48.3% in the same period a year ago.
Electric car sales
Sales of new BEVs grew by 23.9% year-on-year to reach 412,997 units, the data said, with three of the four largest markets in the EU accounting for close to two thirds (63%) of all sales.
Strong gains for EVs were observed in Germany (+38.9%), Belgium (+29.9%), and the Netherlands (+7.9%), however France bucked the trend, reporting a 6.6% decline.
Sales of new hybrid-electric cars rose by 20.7%, driven by growth in France (+47.5%), Spain (+36.6%), Italy (+15.3%), and Germany (+10.5%), while sales of plug-in-hybrid electric cars grew by 1.1%, with Germany (+41.8%) and Spain (+30.7%) the key drivers of this market.
Conventional vehicles
Sales of traditional, internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles continued to fall, with petrol car registrations falling 20.6% to 779,817 units, and diesel registrations dropping 27.1%. Diesel now represents just 9.5% of the EU market.
France saw the sharpest drop in petrol registrations (-34.1%), followed by Germany (-26.6%), Italy (-15.8%), and Spain (-9.5%). Overall, double-digit declines were observed in most EU markets, the ACEA noted.
‘In Q1 2025, new EU car registrations declined by 1.9% compared to Q1 2024, with March 2025 figures showing a slight 0.2% year-on-year (YOY) decline as the global economic context remains particularly challenging and unpredictable for auto makers,’ it said. Read more here.
