- EVs have officially overtaken traditional gas-powered cars in Europe.
- Europeans bought over 300,000 EVs in last year’s closing month, marking a historic shift in the industry.
- EVs are now trailing behind hybrids in the sales charts, but the gap is getting smaller and smaller.
Electric cars outsold traditional gas-powered passenger vehicles for the first time in Europe in December of last year, marking a huge shift in the regional car market. Despite a proposed loosening of the upcoming 2035 gas car ban, Europeans bought over 300,000 EVs last month, boosting the year-over-year figures by a solid 50% and overtaking gas cars, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
This latest shift comes after EVs surpassed diesel cars at the end of 2023, and after plug-in hybrids outsold oil burners a year later. Diesel-powered cars can still be bought in Europe, but their market share has been constantly declining in the past decade, going from market leader to the bottom of the pack.
Now, gas-powered passenger cars are going on the same trajectory as automakers flood the market with more battery-powered models to keep their average fleet emissions low. And it’s not just expensive EVs that are now available–with more and more affordable options on the table, car buyers are looking away from traditional powertrains and getting behind the wheel of an electric vehicle.
However, the fight is not over yet. Hybrids still rule the sales charts in Europe, but EVs are closing in. Last month, customers in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the European Free Trade Association countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) registered 308,955 new EVs. In the EU alone, 217,898 EVs were registered. In both cases, figures increased by a little over 50% compared to 2024.
By comparison, 380,921 hybrid cars were registered in the EU, EFTA and UK in December 2025, while 324,799 found new homes in the European Union alone. There’s an obvious gap here, but the rate at which hybrid registrations increased was nowhere near EVs–5.8% in the EU and 4.9% in the EU, EFTA and UK.
Meanwhile, gas cars saw 216,492 registrations in the EU alone, a 19.2 decrease from 2024. In the EU, EFTA and UK, 254,449 gas-powered vehicles were registered, a 17.7% decrease year-over-year.
Diesel cars barely surpassed 70,000 registrations in the EU, EFTA and UK regions, continuing their decline with a 23.1% decrease year-over-year. Plug-in hybrids, however, are still on the rise, with 123,460 new registrations in December–up 35.8% from 2024.
In total, nearly 2.6 million EVs were registered in the EU, EFTA and UK last year, a 29.7% increase over 2024. Hybrid registrations reached nearly 4.6 million units, an increase of 12.4%, while plug-in hybrid registrations surpassed 1.2 million units–up 33.4% year-over-year.
Gas cars accounted for nearly 3.5 million registrations, and diesel-powered vehicles had 1 million registrations. Both fuel types, however, saw significant declines compared with 2024–18.9% for gas cars and 24% for diesels.
