Acea: EU new car registrations fell by 2.6% in January 2025

In January 2025, new car registrations in the EU fell by 2.6%. It is worth noting that all major EU markets experienced a decline, with France (-6.2%), Italy (-5.8%) and Germany (-2.8%) seeing the largest declines. In contrast, registrations in Spain grew by 5.3%.

EU new car registrations by power source

In January 2025, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 15% of the market, up from 10.9% in January 2024. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) performed strongly, accounting for nearly 34.9% of the market, and once again became the first choice for EU car buyers. At the same time, the combined market share of gasoline and diesel vehicles fell to 39.4% in January 2025, down from 48.7% a year ago.

Electric Vehicles

Newly registered BEV sales increased by 34% to 124,341 units in January 2025, accounting for 15% of the market. Three of the four largest EU markets (accounting for 64% of all BEV registrations) achieved strong double-digit growth: Germany (+53.5%), Belgium (+37.2%) and the Netherlands (+28.2%); France saw a slight decline (-0.5%).

New registrations of hybrid vehicles in the EU increased by 18.4% in January 2025, driven by significant growth in four major markets: France (+52.2%), Spain (+23.5%), Germany (+13.7%) and Italy (+10.6%). This brought the total number of hybrid vehicle registrations in January 2025 to 290,014, representing 34.9% of the EU market.

Registrations of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) fell by 8.5% to 61,406 units in January 2025. This decline was mainly due to significant contractions in key markets such as Belgium (-66.6%) and France (-54%). As a result, PHEVs now account for 7.4% of total EU car sales.

Petrol and diesel cars

Gasoline car registrations fell sharply by 18.9% in January 2025, with all major markets experiencing declines. France saw the biggest drop, with registrations down 28.2%, followed by Germany (-23.7%), Italy (-17%) and Spain (-11.1%).

In January, new registrations of petrol cars totalled 244,763, with the market share falling to 29.4%, down from 35.4% in the same month last year. Similarly, the diesel market fell by 27%, resulting in a market share of 10% for diesel cars in January 2025. Overall, most EU markets saw double-digit declines.