- Gasoline car registrations fell by 18.7% by the end of 2025
- Electric vehicles surpassed sales of gasoline cars in December last year
- BYD had a particularly strong year in Europe
The latest sales figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association have revealed that battery electric vehicles outsold petrol cars in Europe for the first time in December last year, marking a milestone for the technology.
Overall, gasoline cars continue to dominate when data from January to December 2025 is taken into account, with 26.6% accounting for 17.4% of BEV sales. But hybrid vehicles, which combine a small gasoline engine with batteries and electric motors, were the overall favorites, accounting for 34.5% of all European sales in 2025.
Perhaps the most telling figure is that gasoline car registrations fell by 18.7% at the end of last year, with all major markets experiencing declines. Diesel performed even worse, with a drop in registrations of 24.2%, which would translate into a low share of 8.9% in 2025.
This trend appears to support recent news that some petrol stations in Europe and the UK could stop selling diesel as early as 2030, as new vehicle registrations plummet.
Even though the European Union has relaxed its ban on the sale of gasoline-only cars, moving the date from 2030 to 2035, the move toward increasing amounts of electrification is well underway: Europeans bought more than 300,000 electric vehicles last month alone.
There are several good reasons for this. The first and most obvious is that Europeans have one of the widest choices of purely electric vehicles outside of markets like China and Asia, with even “legacy” automakers now offering everything from compact electric city cars to large seven-seat SUVs.
Peugeot, for example, sells a purely electric version of all cars and light commercial vehicles across its range, offering customers the simple choice between pure electric or hybrid in many models.
Secondly, alongside the rapid increase in model choice in Europe, the cost of electric vehicles has also fallen dramatically, with smaller, more affordable electric cars on the market.
Models like the best-selling Renault 5 E-Tech, for example, cost just under £23,000 in the UK, which works out to around $32,000 / AU$45,500.
Similarly, Chinese brands such as BYD, Omoda, Jaecoo and Leapmotor have arrived on European shores offering exceptionally good deals on new electric vehicles.
BYD, for example, saw its sales increase by an astronomical 228% in 2025, going from 39,000 to 129,000 cars sold over the course of the year.
Hybrids do the heavy lifting
As most major car manufacturers embrace an increasingly electrified range, buyers simply don’t have as many options in Europe when it comes to pure petrol or diesel cars. In fact, the latter have been eliminated from most model ranges.
Instead, hybrid cars have been seen as the way to bridge the gap between fossil fuels and pure electrification, offering greater range compared to BEVs and the ability to quickly fill a tank of gas from a traditional gas station if necessary.
European sales figures for hybrid cars speak for themselves, but fully electric vehicles are quickly gaining ground. What’s more, many manufacturers are moving toward extended-range hybrids, in which the engine acts only as a generator to charge the batteries, rather than powering the wheels.
This helps reduce fuel consumption and emissions, while offering a range of more than 1,000 miles without stopping in the case of Xpeng’s formidable G7 SUV and P7+ sedan, which will soon be available in Europe.
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