EU car market slightly down in January, EVs rebound

In January 2025, new EU car registrations declined by -2.6%. Notably, the bloc’s major markets saw declines, with France (-6.2%), Italy (-5.8%), and Germany (-2.8%). Spain conversely recorded a 5.3% increase. The data comes from ACEA, the Association of European Car Manufacturers.

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) made up 15% of the market share, up from the low baseline of comparison of 10.9% in January 2024. Hybrid-electric vehicles surged ahead, commanding nearly 34.9% of the market and becoming again the first most preferred choice among EU car buyers. Meanwhile, the combined market share of gasoline and diesel cars fell to 39.4% in January 2025, down from 48.7% one year ago.

By power source

Electric

In January 2025, new battery-electric car sales grew by 34% to 124,341 units, capturing a 15% market share. Three of the four largest markets in the region, together accounting for 64% of all battery-electric car registrations, recorded robust double-digit gains: Germany (+53.5%), Belgium (+37.2%), and the Netherlands (+28.2%), while France saw a slight decline of -0.5%.

Other big growers, but still in smaller absolute numbers, are Denmark (+123.3%), Italy (+126.2%), Portugal (+30.9%, Spain (+48.5%), and a serious bunch of  Eastern European countries, though we’re still talking small numbers here.

Hybrids

Registrations of plug-in hybrid electric cars declined in January 2025, dropping by 8.5% to 61,406 units. This decrease was primarily driven by significant reductions in key markets such as Belgium (-66.6%) and France (-54%). As a result, plug-in hybrid electric cars now represent 7.4% of total car sales in the EU.

In January, new EU registrations of hybrid-electric cars increased (again) by 18.4%, boosted by significant growth in the four biggest markets: France (+52.2%), Spain (+23.5%), Germany (+13.7%), and Italy (+10.6%). This led to 290,014 units registered in the first month of 2025, representing 34.9% of the EU market share, which is by far the most essential share now.

Petrol and diesel

Gasoline car registrations saw a significant decline of 18.9%, with all major markets showing decreases. France experienced the steepest drop, with registrations plummeting by 28.2%, followed by Germany (-23.7%), Italy (-17%), and Spain (-11.1%). With 244,763 new cars registered last month, the market share for gasoline dropped to 29.4%, down from 35.4% in the same month the previous year, when they were still leading the market.

Similarly, the diesel car market declined by 27%, resulting in a 10% market share for diesel vehicles last January. Double-digit declines were observed in most EU markets except for a few tiny markets.

The same tendencies, but more pronounced, can be seen in the EFTA countries (Iceland, Switzerland, and Norway), where electric car sales increased by 66.8%, and in the United Kingdom, where electric car registrations grew by 41.6%.

By make

The Volkswagen Group stays solidly in first place in the first month of 2025, even increasing its market share by 2.2 points (from 25.5 to 27.7%). Serious climbers in sales were Volkswagen (+14.9%) and Cupra (+61.5%).

Stellantis Group, number two, is still on the downhill slope, with a market share falling from 19.1% to 16.1% and overall registrations down 17.9%. Noticeable downhill figures are registered for Opel/Vauxhall (-31.1%), DS (-42.3%), and Lancia/Chrysler (-73.2%). Alfa Romeo was the only grower (+22.7%).

In third place comes Renault, which has been steadily growing in recent months and scores a market share of 10.9% (up 0.8%). The growth comes from Renault (+18.9%) and Alpine (+168.9%). In the latter case, the effect of the A290 launch is, of course, significant, as is the appearance of the R5 Electric in the case of Renault. Dacia registrations decreased slightly (-6%), but it’s still the biggest seller in the group.

Toyota Group confirms its fourth place(8.7% market share) despite a slight decrease in sales (-4.9%) due to the Toyota brand selling 7.8% less, while Lexus increased registrations by 41.9%. The fifth, Hyundai Group, represents 7.7% of the market (down from 8.1%) and lost 6.3% in sales, primarily due to Kia’s 11% sales loss.

Sixth and seventh are, as always, the BMW Group (6.7%, -1% in sales, primarily due to Mini) and Mercedes-Benz (4.2% market share, -6.3% in sales). Most of Mercedes-Benz’s sales loss this month is due to the Smart registrations, which, inexplicably, fell from 2,254 units to… 60 (-97.3%).

Ford stays steady at eighth place, Volvo is ninth, and we have a new number ten, Chinese SAIC Motor, which practically doubles its market share (from 1.1 to 2.1%) and increases sales by 76.5%. The biggest loser here is Tesla, falling back to 14th place and seeing its market share (from 1.8% to 0.9%) and sales (-50.3 %) halve.

With 170 cars sold (-66.9%) throughout Europe in January, Jaguar has almost disappeared from the statistics.