EV sales soar in main European markets as drivers shun expensive petrol

SALES of fully electric cars in Europe’s main auto markets jumped by almost a third in the first quarter of 2026, as drivers looked for alternatives to combustion engines after the war in Iran caused the highest spike in petrol prices in years.

New battery-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations, a proxy for sales, rose 29.4 per cent from a year ago to almost 560,000 in the quarter and were up 51.3 per cent at over 240,000 in March alone in 15 European markets, data collected by trade association E-Mobility Europe and research firm New Automotive showed on Monday (Apr 20).

Last year, those markets accounted for 94 per cent of all BEV sales in the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, whose countries align with EU laws regulating CO2 emissions, data by the Acea auto lobby shows.

“March’s surge in electric car sales is one of Europe’s biggest recent gains in energy security, in a month when oil dependence has become a real vulnerability,” E-Mobility Europe secretary general Chris Heron said in a statement.

The joint statement from the two organisations said the half-million BEVs registered in the quarter were enough to reduce oil consumption by two million barrels per year.

The region’s five largest EV markets – Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland – have recorded growth of more than 40 per cent in BEV sales so far this year, it said. It estimated that 21.2 per cent of all new cars registered in the EU and EFTA in March were electric.

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In a separate report published earlier in April, New Automotive said BEV registrations in Britain, Europe’s second-biggest BEV market after Germany, grew 12.8 per cent in the quarter, also helped by rising petrol prices, and accounted for 22.5 per cent of new car sales in the country. REUTERS