European car market shrinks in 1st half of year due to 'challenging environment'
Despite overall downturn, battery-electric vehicle sales climb 24.9% while petrol and diesel registrations continue to decline
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ISTANBUL
The European passenger car market declined 1.9% on an annual basis in the first half of the year due to "challenging global economic environment for auto makers" with 6.81 million new automobile registrations, according to data released Thursday by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Among the EU, UK and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) area's major car markets, France saw a 7.9% decrease, followed by the Netherlands with a 5.5% decline, Germany with 4.7%, and Italy with 3.6%
However, Spain saw an expansion of 13.9% year-on-year in the first six months of the year.
Electric vehicles continued to drive market growth. Battery-electric vehicle (BEV) sales surged 24.9% year-on-year in the first half of the year, reaching 1.19 million units and accounting for 15.6% of total new car sales.
Germany saw a 35.1% rise in BEV sales, while Spain and Poland recorded even higher gains of 83.9% and 60.9%, respectively.
Hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) further cemented their dominance, accounting for 34.8% of the EU market in the six-month period. Registrations of HEVs soared 16% to 2.38 million units.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) also showed robust growth, with sales rising 21.2% to 591,572 units.
On the other hand, traditional internal combustion engine vehicles saw sharp declines. Petrol car registrations fell 21.7%, with a market share of 28.4%.
Diesel car registrations posted worse results, plummeting by 27.5% and reducing their market share to 9.4% in the first half of the year. Double-digit declines were recorded in most European markets.
In June alone, the registrations fell 7.3% year-on-year to 1.24 million units in Europe.
"With a strong 7.3% year-on-year (YOY) decline for June, also indicative of the challenging global economic environment for auto makers. The battery-electric car market share for H1 2025 stood at 15.6%, still far from where it needs to be at this point in the transition. Hybrid-electric models continue to grow in popularity, retaining their place as the most popular power type amongst buyers," a statement from ACEA said.
