Market Spotlight
European Market Monitor: Cars and Vans (August 2025)
Passenger car registrations
The average share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) among total new registrations in Europe reached 19% in August 2025, up from 17% in July. The BMW pool led with a 29% share and was followed by the Mercedes-Volvo-Polestar (26%), Hyundai (22%), Kia (21%) and Volkswagen (20%) pools. The Tesla pool (16%), SAIC (13%), the Renault pool (12%) and Nissan (8%) all were below the European average. Year-to-date (YTD) 2025, the BEV share remained stable at 17%, which represents an increase of 4 percentage points compared with the same period of 2024. Several manufacturing pools had significant increases in BEV shares in YTD 2025 versus YTD 2024. Kia (20%) and Volkswagen (18%) both recorded increases of 8 percentage points, while BEV shares for the Hyundai (18%) and BMW (25%) pools increased 7 and 4 percentage points, respectively. In contrast, SAIC stood out with a drop from 38% in YTD 2024 to 13% in YTD 2025. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) had an average market share among new registrations in Europe of 9% in YTD 2025 (up 2 percentage points over YTD 2024), led by the Mercedes-Volvo-Polestar pool (23% share). For full hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), SAIC (41%), Nissan (37%), and the Renault pool (29%) recorded the largest shares in YTD 2025. In the mild hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) segment, the BMW and Mercedes-Volvo-Polestar pools led registration shares, each with a 37% in YTD 2025.
Figure 1. Share of battery electric in new passenger car registrations in Europe
Figure 2. Average CO2 emissions of manufacturer pools and individual manufacturers compared with estimated 2025-2027 targets, 2025 YTD
Note: Includes compliance credits. All CO2 values are estimates according to the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). Only manufacturer pools and individual manufacturers with at least 1% market share YTD are shown. See the section on definitions, data sources, methodology, and assumptions for more.
Looking at individual car brands with market shares of 1% or greater, apart from Tesla, Volvo had the greatest over-compliance at 28 g CO2/km below its projected brand-level average target for 2025–2027, followed by Cupra (15 g CO2/km below its target) and Mini (13 g CO2/km below its target). Nissan, Mazda, and SEAT currently have the largest target gaps at 30, 26 and 25 g CO2/km, respectively.
Table 1. Share of battery electric, plug-in hybrid, full hybrid, and mild hybrid passenger cars by manufacturer pool or large manufacturer not forming a pool
Table 2. Fleet-average CO2 emissions of new passenger cars and market share by manufacturer pool or large manufacturer not forming a pool
Table 3. Fleet-average CO2 emissions of new passenger cars and market share by manufacturer group and brand
Passenger car registrations by country
Figure 3. Share of plug-in hybrid and battery electric passenger cars by country, including information on market size (total new car registrations)
Table 4. New passenger car registrations by country
Table 5. New battery electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, and mild hybrid passenger car registrations by country
Table 6. Share of new battery electric, plug-in hybrid, full hybrid, and mild hybrid passenger cars by country
Passenger car registrations by owner
Corporate fleets, comprised of company fleets (35%), car dealers and manufacturers (15%), and short-term rentals (8%), made up 59% of total registrations in July 2025, while private cars made up 41% of the market. Short-term rental registrations fluctuate more than other owner types; they ranged from only 6% in Q3 2024 to nearly 13% of sales in Q2 2025. In July 2025, the split of new registrations by owner type largely mirrored that of Q3 2024.
Figure 4. New passenger car registrations by owner for 19 select European countries
Spotlight: Electric vehicle uptake in the United Kingdom
After leaving the EU in January 2020, the United Kingdom developed its own CO2 targets for new light duty vehicles and implemented a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Since 2024, car and van manufacturers have been required to meet annual ZEV registration percentage targets, replacing the EU’s stepwise CO2 targets set at five-year intervals. Unlike in the EU, the U.K. regulation prohibits manufacturers from forming pools with carmakers outside their ownership group. However, within a group, manufacturers that exceed their ZEV targets can share spare allowances with affiliates that fall short. Manufacturer groups can also trade allowances to other groups.
Since their introduction, these measures have created stronger incentives to accelerate electric vehicle sales in the United Kingdom compared with the EU. Battery electric cars increased their market share from about 17% in 2023 to roughly 20% in 2024, and approximately 22% YTD, around five percentage points higher than the combined YTD average share for the EU, Norway, and Iceland. Over the past five years, BEV registrations in the United Kingdom have tended to surge in the run-up to the end of the annual compliance period on December 31. Thus, the 2025 year-end market share is likely to be closer to the 2025 target set at 28%.
Although manufacturers missed the 2024 U.K. ZEV target of 22% on average, they effectively over–complied by using non-ZEV CO2 credits. These credits can be earned by improving the CO2 emissions performance of non-zero-emission cars relative to manufacturer-specific CO2 baseline values. This flexibility effectively lowered the 2024 fleet-wide ZEV target from 22% to 18%. For 2025, the estimated effective target—accounting for these flexibilities—is about 22% and, therefore, manufacturers are expected to again be in compliance. In April 2025, the U.K. Government proposed additional flexibilities to the ZEV regulation, such as higher caps for non-ZEV CO2 credits, that are expected to further lower the effective ZEV share targets.
Complementing the supply-side ZEV mandate, the United Kingdom offers consumer-facing incentives, including reduced taxes for the private use of zero- and low-emission company cars. In addition, upfront purchase incentives of up to £3,750 (about €4,300) for qualifying ZEV models were reintroduced in August 2025. As of August 2025, only two models are eligible for the maximum grant.
The rapid rise in BEV adoption in the United Kingdom has taken place despite the high cost of public charging, which is typically at least seven times higher than home charging, thus costing a similar amount to fueling an equivalent gasoline vehicle. With lower public charging costs, the uptake of BEVs would likely have been even stronger.
The authors thank Corrin Reilly, Ciara Cook, and David Farrar from New AutoMotive who provided key input on policy and market developments in the United Kingdom.
Figure 5. Share of battery electric in new passenger car registrations in the United Kingdom and EEA countries
Figure 6. Battery electric car share by manufacturer group compared with their estimated 2025 targets in the United Kingdom, YTD 2025. Source: New AutoMotive.
Definitions, data sources, methodology, and assumptions
- Manufacturer pools: Automakers are allowed to form pools to jointly comply with CO2 targets. For this publication, the 2025 pools listed in the European Commission’s “M1 pooling list,” version of March 15, 2025, are used. The 2024 closed pools from this list have been carried over to 2025, even in the absence of a 2025 formal declaration, as they typically remain stable due to ongoing commercial affiliations (e.g., the BMW, Hyundai, and Kia pools). In contrast, only open pools that have been confirmed for 2025 are included, as their composition tends to change more frequently than closed pools. Additionally, it is assumed that the Renault Group forms a closed pool in 2025 with its affiliated manufacturers. The main brands are: BMW pool (BMW, Mini), Hyundai pool (Hyundai), Kia pool (Kia), Mercedes-Volvo-Polestar pool (Mercedes-Benz, Polestar, Smart, Volvo), Renault pool (Dacia, Renault), Tesla pool (Citroën, Fiat, Ford, Jeep, Mazda, Opel, Peugeot, Suzuki, Tesla, Toyota), Volkswagen pool (Audi, Cupra, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda, VW). Nissan and SAIC are large passenger car manufacturers not part of a pool.
- Abbreviations: CO2 = carbon dioxide emissions; g/km = grams per kilometer; YTD = year-to-date; ZLEV = zero- and low-emission vehicle.
- Technical scope: This publication focuses on new passenger car registrations. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are powered exclusively by an electric motor, with no additional source of propulsion. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) combine a conventional combustion engine with an electric propulsion system that can be recharged via an external power source. Hybrid electric vehicles here include full hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs). HEVs and MHEVs integrate two propulsion systems, usually a combustion engine and an electric propulsion system that cannot be recharged via an external power source. Key differences between HEVs and MHEVs are the system voltage and system power. This enables HEVs to drive partially pure electric, while the electric propulsion system of MHEVs is typically only capable of assisting the combustion engine. For more on HEVs and MHEVs see: Jan Dornoff et al., Mild-Hybrid Vehicles: A Near Term Technology Trend for CO2 Emissions Reduction (International Council on Clean Transportation, 2022), https://theicct.org/publication/mild-hybrid-emissions-jul22/.
- Geographic scope: The European CO2 regulation for vehicle manufacturers applies to all countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). This includes the 27 Member States of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Data for new car registrations and shares of electric vehicles in this publication cover all of these countries, with the exception of Liechtenstein and Malta. Data for CO2 emission levels additionally omits Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia. 2025 data for Cyprus, Ireland, Lithuania, and Portugal covers January to July 2025 only.
- Data sources: Dataforce (new vehicle registrations), European Environment Agency (vehicle mass and eco-innovation credits). Historical values are regularly updated to reflect all latest data available.
- Results may change over time: Registrations and/or CO2 data may be retrospectively updated by some of the national type-approval authorities.
- Test procedures: CO2 values are provided according to the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP).
- Flexible compliance mechanisms: To facilitate meeting their CO2 targets, manufacturers can make use of a number of compliance mechanisms: (1) Manufacturers can reduce their CO2 level by up to 6 g/km by deploying eco-innovation technologies. As a conservative estimate, we apply the 2024 level of eco-innovation CO2 emission reductions per brand. For more on the methodology used, see: Uwe Tietge, Peter Mock, and Jan Dornoff, Overview and Evaluation of Eco-Innovations in European Passenger Car CO2 Standards (International Council on Clean Transportation, 2018), https://theicct.org/publications/eco-innovations-european-passenger-car-co2-standards; (2) If a manufacturer’s ZLEV share exceeds 25%, its CO2 target is increased by the same number of percentage points, up to a maximum of 5%. This adjustment is referred to as the ZLEV factor, while the target before adjustment is called the manufacturer reference target. The manufacturer target is calculated by multiplying the reference target by the ZLEV factor. ZLEVs are BEVs and vehicles with CO2 emissions of 50 g/km (WLTP) or less. For details on the ZLEV factor mechanism, see: Jan Dornoff, CO2 emission standards for new passenger cars and vans in the European Union (International Council on Clean Transportation, 2023), https://theicct.org/publication/eu-co2-standards-cars-vans-may23/.
- Mass-based targets: For each manufacturer or manufacturer pool, a specific 2025 CO2 target value applies, depending on the average WLTP test mass of the new vehicles registered. For this publication, we assume the average WLTP test mass per manufacturer pool remains the same as in 2024; the average 2024 BEV and non-BEV test mass for each manufacturer was calculated based on EEA data and then weighted according to their year-to-date 2025 BEV market shares. For more on the methodology used, see: Uwe Tietge, Jan Dornoff, and Peter Mock, CO2 Emissions From New Passenger Cars in Europe: Car Manufacturers’ Performance in 2023 (International Council Clean Transportation, 2024), https://theicct.org/publication/co2-emissions-new-pv-europe-car-manufacturers-performance-2023-sept24/.
- 2025–2027 averaging: Rather than being required to meet the CO2 target applying from 2025 onwards in each individual year, manufacturers are granted the flexibility to comply based on their average CO2 emissions over the three-year period 2025–2027. This means that manufacturers may exceed their CO2 targets in one or more years, provided that any excess emissions are balanced out by equivalent over-compliance in other years within the averaging period. For more details on the provision, see ICCT, “Public comments on the European Commission proposal to introduce a 3-year “averaging” provision for the CO2 standards regulation for new cars and vans” (International Council on Clean Transportation, 2025), https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/PublicComments-Averaging-final-27March.pdf.
- Owner types: This publication considers four types of owners: private cars, company fleets, short-term rentals, and car dealers and manufacturers. The private car category includes all registrations under private individuals, including those of self-employed persons, provided the vehicles are not registered under a company name. Private leasing is also included. Company fleets encompass all vehicles registered to companies, excluding those intended for resale or rental. This category includes company and public administration fleets, commercial long-term rentals, commercial leases, taxis, driving schools, diplomats, etc. The size of the fleet and the extent to which the vehicles are used privately are not considered relevant. The short-term rentals type covers all registrations under large or small national and local rental companies. It also covers all vehicles flagged by authorities as being used for self-drive rental purposes. The car dealers and manufacturers type includes all vehicles registered by car dealers and manufacturers. For automakers, this includes vehicles used for press purposes as well as those for their employees. New registrations data by owner type is aggregated for the following 19 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
This publication is a collaboration between the ICCT, IMT-IDDRI, and ECCO think tank.