Electric cars gained ground in 2025 as hybrids took the lead

28 January 2026

The 2025 European car sales data shows a strong shift in what drivers want. Last year, new car registrations in the European Union grew by 1.8%. There's no doubt that more people are buying cars than in 2024, but the total number of sales still hasn't reached the levels seen before the pandemic. What we can see for the first time is buyers moving away from traditional engines and choosing more efficient options.

Electric cars are a big part of this change. In 2025, a total of 1,880,370 new battery-electric vehicles hit the road. This means EVs now make up 17.4% of the entire car market. Just one year ago, that number was only 13.6%, which shows that more families and commuters are ready to plug in.

EVs are growing fast, but hybrid-electric cars are currently the most popular choice for European buyers - they captured 34.5% of the market in 2025. People bought over 3.7 million hybrid units throughout the year. Drivers seem to like the mix of a gas engine and a battery, especially in countries like Spain and France, where hybrid sales jumped by over 20%.

Plug-in hybrids are also becoming more common. These cars can be charged at home, but still have a gas engine for long trips. Their market share rose to 9.4%, up from 7.2% the year before. In some places, the interest in these cars exploded. For example, plug-in hybrid sales in Spain increased by 111.7%.

The news isn't as good for old-fashioned gas and diesel cars. Their combined market share dropped to 35.5%. Back in 2024, they held nearly half the market at 45.2%. Petrol car sales fell by 18.7% over the year, with France seeing a massive 32% drop in people choosing gas-only models.

Diesel cars are disappearing even faster. Their registrations fell by 24.2% in 2025. Now, only about 9 out of every 100 new cars sold use diesel. It is clear that the era of the noisy diesel engine is coming to a close as cleaner technology takes over.

Most of the growth for electric cars came from a few large countries. Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France make up 62% of all EV registrations in the EU. Germany led the way with a huge 43.2% increase in battery-electric sales. This shows that where charging stations are available, buyers are much more likely to switch to an electric car.

When looking at who is making these cars, the Volkswagen Group remains the leader. They held a 26.7% share of the EU market in 2025. Their brands, like Audi and Skoda, saw steady growth. Audi sales alone went up by 31.3% in December.

The Renault Group saw a 5.6% increase in sales for the year. Meanwhile, Tesla had a tougher year, with their registrations dropping by 37.9% compared to 2024. Newcomers like BYD are growing very fast, with their registrations jumping by over 227%, though they still have a smaller total share of the market.

The end of 2025 was especially busy. In December alone, electric car sales surged by 51% compared to the previous December. This late-year rush helped the industry reach its goals for the transition to cleaner energy. While there is still a long way to go to replace every gas car, the momentum is clearly on the side of batteries and electric motors - the data shows that 2025 was a year of "out with the old and in with the new."

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