Passenger electric vehicles - new registration market share 2012-2019

In the European Union, the share of new passenger car registrations with electric propulsion peaked at 3.3 percent in 2019. Between 2012 and 2019, the share of battery electric vehicle registrations grew from 0.1 percent to 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle registrations experienced a somewhat more moderate growth but also reached a record level of 1.2 percent in 2019. Sales of plug-in electric vehicles in the EU reached almost 130,000 units in the fourth quarter of 2019.

More EV charging stations available

The higher adoption level of EVs goes hand in hand with efforts of European countries to improve infrastructure for such vehicles by increasing the number of charging stations available. In 2019, more than 170,000 had become available across the continent.

Renault and Nissan models take the lead

The leading EV car model in Europe was the Nissan Leaf, which sold nearly 41,000 units in 2018 and was closely followed by the Renault Zoe. Another Nissan model, the NV200, was the most popular of electric light commercial vehicles, ranking in twelfth place.