European Auto Market in First Half of 2026: EV Share Reaches 20.7%
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the European market for new passenger cars grew by 5.7% to 5,896,683 units in January-June 2026. This result, achieved amid geopolitical turbulence, was made possible by the explosive growth in demand for electric vehicles (+35.1%), with hybrid cars also selling like hotcakes. Eco-activists are celebrating victory, while the systemic crisis of the European automotive industry is only intensifying. We explain how this is possible.
The thing is that good sales do not mean good profits: the costs of doing business in Europe today are so high (the environmental agenda, high taxes, social burden, very strict market regulation by authorities, lengthy approvals for new projects) that it is very difficult to achieve profitability here even with good sales. All major European automakers are currently recording declining revenues. Even the seemingly unsinkable BMW Group has found itself on the brink of crisis, while the Volkswagen Group is already in a state of transition from crisis to catastrophe.
The current growth of the European car market was driven by electric vehicles, demand for which rose due to the geopolitical exercises of US President Donald Trump in the Middle East: military actions led to spikes in oil prices and problems with its delivery due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Even Tesla, which had been written off in Europe as an outsider due to its outdated model lineup and Elon Musk’s political views, managed to sharply increase electric vehicle sales in the region in the first half of 2026, namely by 54.6% to 170,351 units.
ACEA statistics are based on registration data, which most accurately reflect the state of the European car market, but for ease of perception we will use the word “sales” rather than “registrations” because it is more familiar. Unfortunately, ACEA does not publish sales statistics by model, and there are currently no other open-access data sources for Europe. The analytical agency JATO Dynamics, which previously had excellent reviews of Europe with model-level statistics, stopped publishing them last summer.
Below we provide ACEA statistics for the first half of the year by manufacturer and individual brand. Alas, there is no breakdown by brand within Geely Group, BYD, and Chery in this table; we will only note that Chinese companies are gradually establishing themselves in Europe, and their share will only grow, including through the localization of key models at European plants. Yesterday, for example, it was officially announced that Geely will produce its crossovers at the Ford plant in Valencia (Spain).
Next, let’s look at how the European new car market is currently divided by powertrain type: the share of electric vehicles compared to the first half of 2025 increased from 15.6% to 20.7%, the share of hybrids (non-plug-in) increased from 34.8% to 37.3%, the share of plug-in hybrids increased from 8.5% to 9.8%, the share of petrol cars decreased from 28.4% to 22.2%, and the share of diesel cars decreased from 9.4% to 7.5%.
ACEA also has an interesting table showing the distribution of powertrain types by country. It shows that the main consumers of electric vehicles in Europe are Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium, and Italy. Interestingly, Spain, which has become the main production hub for Chinese companies in Europe, is in the middle range in terms of electric vehicle consumption, while the Netherlands became the only country where there was no growth in electric vehicle sales in the first half of the year.
