Around one in six (17.3%) of all new passenger car registrations in the EU last year were electric vehicles, according to new figures from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), based on data from Eurostat.
This was a ‘record high’, the data showed, with the share of electric cars having shown substantial growth over the past decade – in 2015, just 0.4% of new car registrations were electric.
As well as the rise of fully electric vehicles across Europe, hybrid vehicles accounted for 42.4% of new passenger cars registered in 2025, while purely petrol-powered vehicles represented 27.3% and diesel vehicles 9.8%.
Other drive systems, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or natural gas, played a ‘minor role’, the data showed.
Denmark leads the way
On a country-by-country basis, Denmark reported the highest share of purely electric cars among new registrations last year, at 67.8%, followed by the Netherlands (40.2%) and Malta (37.6%).
The lowest share of electric cars in new registrations was in Croatia (1.9%), Slovakia (4.7%), and Bulgaria (4.9%).
Outside the EU, however, Norway remains the benchmark setter for EV adoption – last year, some 95.1% of all newly registered passenger cars were fully electric.
According to Destatis, the reasons for the difference in EV adoption from county to country include variations in investment in charging infrastructure, as well as national incentives such as tax breaks and reductions in toll and parking charges.
Major car market
Given the size of its car market, Germany accounted for a significant proportion of the EU’s total electric vehicle registrations in 2025, the data showed. Around 545,100 purely electric passenger cars were registered in Germany in 2025, representing 28.9% of the approximately 1.89 million new electric cars registered across the EU.
France was second in absolute terms, with around 330,900 new electric cars and 17.5% of total EU registrations. Read more here.
