New energy vehicles accounted for nearly 49% of the vehicles sold in Europe during April, data shared on Tuesday by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) showed.
Battery electric vehicles (BEV) made up for 144,547 of the units sold in April — up 27.9% from the units sold a year earlier. Fully electric vehicles represented 15.3% of the market.
In a total of 1,256,165 vehicles, 372,551 were hybrid models (HEV), which represented 29.7% of the market share and remained European consumers’ top choice.
When considering the 98,063 plug-in hybrids (PHEV), hybrid vehicles accounted for 35.3% of the sales.
Overall vehicle sales are 16.2% up from April 2024, when sales in Europe reached 1,080,680 units.
However, as usual at the beginning of each quarter, registrations dropped 11.7% in April when compared to the 1,422,628 vehicles sold in March.
In March, fully electric vehicles made up 17% of the market with 242,913 units sold. First quarter’s figures showed that BEVs represented 15.2% of the market in the first three months of the year.
EV Adoption
Denmark saw an increase of 20.3% in EV adoption in April, registering the largest increase from a year ago. Last month, BEVs represented 63.3% of the market, or 9,567 units out of 15,119.
The Scandinavian country was followed by Iceland, which registered a 12% rise to 23.5%, and Belgium, where the fully electric vehicles’ share rose nearly 10% to 33%.
However, the largest EV adopter in Europe is Norway, ranked above Denmark. In the Norwegian market, EVs currently represent a 97% of new vehicle sales.
In April, 10,942 out of the total 11,286 vehicles sold in the country were fully electric.
On the other hand, Luxembourg posted a 5.3% decline in EV sales, from 28.2% in April 2024 to 22.9% last month. EVs in Romania lost 3.3% of the market share, now representing merely 2.2% in the market.
European countries with the lowest EV adoption rate in April were Romania and Croatia, where BEVs only represent 0.7% of the market.
Sales by Brands
Volkswagen Group represented 27.6% of total vehicle sales in Europe last month, up 0.2% from the same period last year.
The group, which includes not only Volkswagen, but also Skoda, Audi, Cupra, Seat and Porsche, sold 296,869 vehicles in April.
Stellantis, which owns Peugeot, Opel and Citroen, had a market share of 15.4% (the same as April 2024), selling over 165,800 units. Renault Group‘s market share went up 0.2% to 10.3% year over year, with 110,513 vehicles sold.
South-Korean based Hyundai Group had a 7.9% market share in European countries last month, with 37,441 vehicles sold from its main brand and 35,437 Kia‘s.
Last week, data from Jato Dynamics claimed that China’s giant BYD registered 7,231 fully electric vehicles in Europe last month, overtaking Tesla for the first time, which sold 7,165 units.
The report confirms that Tesla sold 7,165 vehicles, however, it doesn’t include sales from Chinese carmakers. The Elon Musk-led company saw a plunge of 49% from April 2024, when it sold 14,228 EVs.
The brand’s sales in Europe — which Elon Musk referred to as the brand’s “weakest market” — have been declining since early 2025. It is primarily driven by the transition to the new Model Y, competition from South Korean and Chinese brands, and damage to the brand’s image linked to Musk’s involvement in both U.S. and European politics.
However, Tesla’s Model Y was Norway’s top-selling car (across all powertrains) for the second consecutive month, representing 869 of the total 976 units sold in April. In the country, registrations were up 12% up year over year.
