Finance
Electric car sales edge above petrol in EU for first time
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 27, 2026
3 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 27, 2026
3 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
In December, electric vehicle sales in the EU surpassed petrol for the first time, with Tesla losing market share to BYD and Volkswagen.
By Alessandro Parodi
Jan 27 (Reuters) - Sales of fully electric cars surpassed those of petrol-only vehicles in the European Union for the first time in December, data from the auto industry group ACEA showed on Tuesday, even as hybrids held onto the largest overall share of the market.
The data underscores how the bloc is shifting slowly towards electric and hybrid vehicles, even as policymakers have proposed loosening emission regulations that should allow vehicles with combustion engines to stick around for longer.
Independent automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt said that the fewer petrol car sales partly reflect reclassification of some as "mild hybrids", which still have petrol engines and only modestly contribute to lowering emissions.
"It will still take around half a decade before pure electric cars genuinely overtake combustion-engine models across the region, but this is nonetheless a start," he said.
RACE FOR THE EUROPEAN EV MARKET
Fully electric vehicles made up 22.6% of cars registered in the EU last month, edging out petrol cars on 22.5%. Gasoline-electric hybrids, including plug-in hybrids that can go limited distances on battery power alone, were the top group with 44%.
The registrations are a proxy for sales.
In the broader European market, which includes Britain and Norway, car sales logged a sixth month of year-on-year growth.
Competition from Chinese brands such as BYD, Changan and Geely is intensifying the race for the European market, even as domestic carmakers like Volkswagen and BMW roll out new EV models.
The EU unveiled a plan in December to abandon an effective 2035 ban on combustion engine cars, bowing to pressure from carmakers as they fend off challenges from Chinese rivals, U.S. import tariffs and difficulties in selling EVs profitably.
Yet, industry experts expect EVs to keep increasing their share of the European market.
E-Mobility Europe's Secretary General Chris Heron said European brands have started to adapt by introducing new and affordable EVs, while individual countries offer new incentive schemes.
"We're seeing consumer buy-in to this," Heron said. "We're confident that sales across Europe will continue to grow in 2026."
Overall registrations in Europe, Britain and the European Free Trade Association for Volkswagen and Stellantis rose 10.2% and 4.5%, respectively, in December, while they fell 2.2% at Renault.
Tesla's registrations fell 20.2% in the month, while those of BYD surged 229.7%.
TOTAL EU CAR SALES JUMP NEARLY 6% IN DECEMBER
Sales in the EU, Britain and the European Free Trade Association rose 7.6% to 1.2 million cars in December and by 2.4% to 13.3 million overall in 2025, hitting their highest volumes in five years though they remained well below pre-pandemic levels, ACEA data showed.
Total EU car sales rose 5.8% to almost one million vehicles in December, and by 1.8% to 10.8 million in the year.
December registrations of battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid electric cars were up 51%, 36.7% and 5.8%, respectively, to account collectively for 67% of the bloc's registrations.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi and Rachel More; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Jan Harvey, Bernadette Baum and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
An electric vehicle (EV) is a type of vehicle that is powered by electricity, typically using batteries instead of traditional fuel sources like petrol or diesel.
Emissions regulations are laws that limit the amount of pollutants that can be released into the atmosphere by vehicles and industries to protect the environment.
Market share is the percentage of an industry's sales that a particular company controls. It indicates the company's competitiveness in the market.
Year-on-year growth compares a company's performance in one period to the same period in the previous year, indicating growth or decline.
Plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) combine a conventional internal combustion engine with an electric propulsion system, allowing them to run on both petrol and electricity.
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