New car sales across Europe increased by 4% in the year to May, according to the latest figures from the European carmakers association ACEA.
In the first five months of 2026, 950,521 new battery-electric cars were registered, capturing 20% of the EU market.
Three of the four largest EU markets, which together represented 63% of all battery-electric car registrations, posted strong growth: Italy (+75.7%), France (+55.4%), and Germany (+40.9%). By contrast, Belgium (+2.8%) experienced only subdued growth compared with these markets.
May 2026’s YTD figures also showed new EU hybrid-electric car registrations rising to 1,795,071 units, supported by growth in Italy (+24.5%) and Spain (+19.5%), with Germany (+5.4%) and France (+2.2%) also contributing positively. Overall, hybrid-electric models accounted for 37.8% of the total EU market.
Registrations of plug-in-hybrid electric cars continued to grow, reaching 460,217 units in the May 2026 YTD.
This was driven by rising volumes in key markets such as Italy (+84.9%), Spain (+46.5%), and Germany (+16.1%). Therefore, new plug-in-hybrid electric cars now represent 9.7% of EU registrations, up from 8.3% over the same period in 2025.
