European sales of battery electric vehicles (BEV) increased by +25% year-on-year (YoY) in January-September 2025, according to the report of European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
Meanwhile, European car market (EU + UK + EFTA countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) is showing very modest growth of +1.5% YoY. At the same time, most of the largest regional markets are either stagnating or falling:
- Germany – 2,110,348 cars sold (-0.3% YoY)
- United Kingdom 1,578,172 units (+4.2%)
- France – 1,186,784 units (-6.3%)
- Italy – 1,167,995 units (-2.9%)
- Spain – 854,658 units (+14.8%)
Sales of conventional fuel vehicles make a major contribution to this negative trend:
- Petrol – 2,698,530 cars sold (-19.2% YoY)
- Diesel – 798,987 units (-24.3% YoY)
Alternative fuels – electric vehicles (BEV), plug–in hybrids (PHEV), electric hybrids (HEV) and others – on the contrary, show growth:
- BEV – 1,796,688 units (+25.4%)
- PHEV – 918,527 units (+32.0%)
- HEV – 3,454,676 units (+15.04%)
- fuel cells, natural and liquefied gas, E85/ethanol, etc. – 261,119 units (+4.8%)
The process of replacing traditional fuels with electricity is quite active. Electric cars (BEV) accounted for 14.7% in January-September 2024, but now they have 18.1% share of the market.
Norway has traditionally demonstrated the highest penetration rate of electric vehicles – a year ago 88% of purchased new cars were electric vehicles, now figures have already reached 94.9% (!). Denmark (66%), Finland (35.6%), the Netherlands (35.4%), and Iceland (35.1%) are also among leaders. It is clear that these are small markets, but the symbolic limit of 20% has already been crossed Great Britain (22.1%), the second largest European market. France (18.2%) and Germany (18.1%) are close to this level.
Unlike Russia, you won’t actually see Chinese brands in European automotive sales statistics. There is only SAIC Motor with a share of 2.3% and BYD with a share of 1.2% by the end of January-September 2025.
According to ACEA analysts, September 2025 was the third consecutive month of modest growth of EU market, which has been somewhat driven by the launch of new models.
Russian market of new cars sales reached only 890,300 units during three quarters of 2025, which is -22% less than a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. The Russian market of electric vehicles fell even more during this period – by -43% to 8,700 units.
The only positive thing is that the share of domestic automotive cars increased by 11 percentage points to 30% in January–September 2025. However, we have seen this pattern more than once – the decline is usually accompanied by growth of local cars’ share, the explanation for which is very simple – consumers are forced to squeeze money and demand is shifting to the budget segment of AvtoVAZ.
