Quarterly sales volume of electric vehicles in Europe 2015-2023

Around 757,800 electric vehicles were sold throughout Europe in the second quarter of 2023. This sales volume includes sales of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). Europe is one of the leading markets for plug-in vehicle sales worldwide.

EV popularity and regional mandates keep the market growing

The European plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market had grown by 15 percent year-over-year between 2021 and 2022 and regional and governmental targets could propel sales even further. In June 2022, a European Parliament vote mandated that all new cars and vans sold in the European Union should be zero-emission vehicles by 2035 as part of an ongoing goal to reduce European transport emissions. Road transport, including passenger cars, made up most of the European Union’s transport sector carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, amounting to around 76.7 percent of the emissions. Two years later, in 2022, the use of electric vehicles in Europe displaced the equivalent of 6.1 billion liters of gasoline, making a dent in the region’s motor fuel consumption. The benefits of electric cars still depend on consumers’ perception of EVs.

Charging infrastructure access impacts consumers’ perception

Over half of the consumers in the European Union reported intending to purchase a hybrid or electric vehicle in a survey from the third quarter of 2022, a share which dipped to 49 percent in rural areas, where charging infrastructure is less accessible. Various factors can still make PEVs an inaccessible option for potential buyers. German consumers’ leading concerns regarding BEVs were their driving range and the lack of public charging infrastructure. The rise in electric vehicle usage requires changes to the transport infrastructure, including a sufficient number of publicly available electric vehicle charging stations. Around 535,700 such charging stations were spread across Europe as of 2022. However, while the number of charging stations has increased, European countries still struggle to expand their network. There were under three charging locations per 100 kilometers of roadway in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy as of July 2021.