The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) announced this Tuesday that the registration of new cars in the European Union (EU) increased by 1.3% in April, with 925,359 vehicles sold.
In a statement, ACEA revealed that despite the growth recorded in April, in the cumulative total for the first four months of 2025, sales of light passenger vehicles fell by 1.2% compared to the first four months of 2024, with 3,640,211 units sold.
According to the data now revealed, in the first four months of 2025, sales of new 100% electric cars grew by 26.4%, reaching 558,262 units, capturing 15.3% of the total market share in the EU.
Three of the four largest markets in the EU were responsible for 63% of all registrations of fully electric cars, with Germany recording a gain of 42.8%, Belgium +31.3%, and the Netherlands +6.4%. In contrast, France recorded a decline of 4.4%, despite the recovery noted in April 2025.
“Electric vehicle sales are slowly gaining momentum, but the growth remains very gradual and uneven among EU countries”, stated ACEA’s Director General, Sigrid de Vries, cited in a statement from the European association.
The numbers for the first four months of 2025 also showed a 20.8% increase in new registrations of electric hybrid cars in the EU, driven by significant growth in the four largest markets: France (+44.9%), Spain (+35.8%), Italy (+15%), and Germany (+11%), which allowed for 1,285,486 units to be registered in the first four months of 2025, representing 35.3% of the total market share in the EU.
On the other hand, registrations of plug-in hybrid electric cars grew by 7.8% in April 2025, totaling 287,850 units, which was due to significant increases in the volume of vehicles sold in key markets such as Germany (+46.6%) and Spain (+42.8%). As a result, plug-in hybrid models now represent 7.9% of the total new vehicle registrations in the EU, compared to 7.2% recorded in April 2024.
Furthermore, the year-on-year variation for April showed an increase of 34.1% for fully electric models and 20.8% for hybrid vehicles, while plug-in hybrids recorded strong growth of 31.2%.
Light passenger cars powered by gasoline engines recorded a decline of 20.6% in April, with all major markets regressing. France saw the steepest decline at 35.2%, followed by Germany at 26.6%, Italy at 14.4%, and Spain recorded a decline of 12.7%.
With 1,041,176 units sold, the market share of gasoline fell to 28.6%, compared to 35.6% recorded in the same period last year.
Similarly, the diesel vehicle market fell by 26.4%, resulting in a market share of 9.6% for the year-to-date in April 2025. Overall, double-digit declines were observed in most EU markets.
