European EV market is booming, 25% of the cars sold last month were EVs

According to a Dataforce analysis of newly registered vehicles in the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and the UK, 25% of all cars sold in July were EVs. In the first seven months of 2026, EV sales were up 37% compared to the same period last year.

The most obvious reason why Europeans are flocking to battery-powered vehicles is gas prices. However, analysts say that the ever-expanding EV portfolio in the region is also to blame. Europeans now have a fairly big catalog of vehicles to choose from.

The EV market isn't the only one on the rise. The overall car market went up by 4.1% last month, while the growth from January through July was 5.7%.

Interestingly enough, BEVs outperformed the PHEVs and the full hybrids, even though the PHEVs rose by 15% while the full hybrid sales went up by 9%.

Naturally, France and Germany are leading the front as France's new cars were 35% EVs. In total, 277,000 EVs were registered in Europe last month.

Surprisingly, there are no Teslas in the top 3 as Skoda Elroq took the first place followed by the VW ID.4 and the Renault 5 E-Tech. Still, the Model Y remains the top-selling EV in Europe for the first seven months of this year with 115,759 sales, a whopping 55% increase over last year.

The plug-in hybrid segment, on the other hand, is dominated by Chinese manufacturers since PHEVs are not subject to additional import tariffs, so they undercut the local competition. About 125,530 PHEVs were sold in Europe last month, which is a 15% jump year-over-year, with Chinese models taking 34% of the market share.

Via