EVs just outsold gas cars in Europe for the first time

EVs hit a new milestone: In December, buyers in Europe registered more electric cars than gas cars for the first time.

EV registrations hit 217,898 in the EU last month—up 50% year-over-year from 2024. Sales of gas cars, on the other hand, dropped nearly 20% to 216,492. The same trend played out in the larger region, including the UK and other non-EU countries like Iceland.

Car buyers have more electric options in Europe than in the U.S., from tiny urban EVs like the $10,000 Fiat Topolino to Chinese cars like the BYD Dolphin.  

“We’re actually seeing this trend globally, although the U.S. is a different story: as the availability and quality of EVs goes up, sales have been going up as well,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, who studies electric vehicle markets at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. “There’s a story that some of the major OEMs have been pushing that there’s no demand for EVs. But when you look at the numbers…it turns out there’s a lot of latent demand.”

Some automakers are doing better than others. Tesla’s market share dropped around 38% last year in Europe as buyers reacted to Elon Musk’s politics. BYD tripled its market share over the same period.

EVs made up 17.4% of car sales in the EU last year, around twice the rate in the U.S. That’s still well behind Norway (not part of the EU), where a staggering 96% of all registrations were fully battery-electric in 2025. Hybrid cars are still more popular than pure electric vehicles in the EU, with 34.5% of market share. Diesel cars, which used to dominate in Europe, now only have around 9% of market share.

It’s not clear exactly what will happen next as the EU may weaken its EV policy. The bloc had targeted an end to new fossil-fueled cars by 2035; in a proposal in December, it suggested cutting vehicle emissions by 90% instead, leaving more room for hybrid cars. Some of the growth also will depend on how willing European countries are to continue letting cheap Chinese EVs on the market. Still, steep growth in EVs is likely to continue.