A charging station for electric cars at a shopping mall in Bochum, Germany in October, 2025.INA FASSBENDER/Getty Images
Sales of fully electric cars in Europe’s main auto markets jumped by almost a third in the first quarter of 2026, as drivers viewed for alternatives to combustion engines after the war in Iran cautilized 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 displayed on Monday.
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 displays.
“March’s surge in electric car sales is one of Europe’s hugegest recent gains in energy security, in a month when oil depconcludeence has become a real vulnerability,” E-Mobility Europe Secretary General Chris Heron stated in a statement.
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The joint statement from the two organizations stated 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 stated. It estimated that 21.2 per cent of all new cars registered in the EU and EFTA in March were electric.
In a separate report published earlier in April, New Automotive stated BEV registrations in Britain, Europe’s second-hugegest BEV market after Germany, grew 12.8 per cent in the quarter, also supported by rising petrol prices, and accounted for 22.5 per cent of new car sales in the counattempt.
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