European EV registrations rise by 30 per cent

While electric cars increased by almost one third year-on-year, the overall market in August 2025 remained pretty stable with a slight decline of 0.1 per cent, ACEA reports. With 667,786 new registrations in the EU, EVs accounted for a market share of 15.8 per cent in August (August 2024: 12.6 per cent).

If the 17,044 new EVs from the EFTA states (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein) and the 21,969 registrations from the United Kingdom are added, 159,810 electric cars hit the roads in Europe in August. Looking at the EU + EFTA + UK, every fifth new car in August was fully electric.

With 39,367 EVs, Germany was by far Europe’s largest electric car market in August (+45.7%). The UK followed with the aforementioned 21,969 BEVs (+14.7%), ahead of France (16,992 BEVs, +29.3%), Norway (13,482 BEVs, +28.6%) and Belgium as well as the Netherlands, both with just over 9,000 registrations. Spain is also noteworthy, where the market more than doubled from 2,696 EVs in August 2024 to 7,032 new registrations (+160.8%).

In the first eight months of the year, the association recorded 1,132,603 new BEV registrations in the EU, an increase of 24.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2024, with a market share of 15.8 per cent. The one-million mark was already surpassed in July, while after the first half of the year, the figure still stood at 869,271 new EVs.

In addition to EVs, the different hybrid classes also posted significant growth. Plug-in hybrids reached 70,545 registrations in the EU, an increase of 54.5 per cent – when including the EFTA states and the UK, plug-in hybrids totalled 82,684 units (+56.3%). Hybrids – here ACEA combines full and mild hybrids – remain the largest drive type in the EU with 229,970 new registrations, up 14.1 per cent. Across Europe as a whole, the figure stood at 264,317 new hybrids (+11.7%). Pure combustion models, on the other hand, lost ground: across the EU, 178,156 new petrol cars hit the roads (-16.3%) and 59,327 new diesels (-17.5%).

In its manufacturer statistics, ACEA no longer breaks down figures by drive type, meaning that only pure EV makers can be clearly assessed. Across all powertrains, the VW Group was in the lead with 190,142 units (+6.3%), though these are not pure EV figures. Since BYD (9,130 registrations, +201.3%) now also sells plug-in hybrids, only Tesla’s trend can be directly derived from the ACEA statistics, as the US carmaker continues to offer an all-electric line-up.

For August, ACEA recorded 8,220 new Teslas. This continues Tesla’s downward trend: compared to 12,966 units in the same month last year, deliveries fell by 36.6 per cent. However, the decline in August was less pronounced than before: Tesla’s sales in the EU from January to August 2025 are down 42.9 per cent year-on-year. Instead of 150,037 EVs, Tesla managed to sell just 85,673 units in that period.

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This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition.