Electric Cars Now Outsell Petrol in the EU This Year, but Hybrids Still Lead

ACEA’s September figures, published on 22 October, have electric cars ahead of petrol in the EU for the year to date: 1,931,465 battery-electric registrations from January to September, a 22.7% share against 21.2% for petrol. At the half-year petrol still led 22.2% to 20.7%, according to ACEA’s July release, so the order changed between June and September. Hybrids are the biggest group at 36.3%, and the whole market is up 5.7% to 8,517,059 cars. I covered the half-year picture in one in five new cars being electric, and the electric share is two percentage points higher now.

How the EU Market Splits by Power Source

Hybrids sold 3,090,530 cars over the first nine months, more than any other power source, while petrol and diesel both fell by roughly a fifth. Electric growth looks even stronger in September on its own, with 290,117 cars, up 72.9%. By my calculation from ACEA’s volumes that is about 29.9% of the month’s registrations, since the release gives no monthly shares. EU, EFTA and UK together registered 1,363,210 cars in September, up 10.2%, with electric up 59.9% to 416,433.

Source: ACEA, EU new car registrations, September 2026 press release (provisional data). Others includes fuel cell, natural gas, LPG and ethanol.

Which Carmakers Are Gaining and Losing Ground

ACEA’s manufacturer table covers every power source, so these are total registrations, and the table below shows 13 of the groups in the EU table.

Source: ACEA, selected groups from the EU manufacturer table, September 2026 press release. Geely Group includes Volvo, Polestar and Zeekr, SAIC Motor includes MG, and Chery Automobile includes Omoda, Jaecoo and Jetour.

Volkswagen Group is almost flat at +0.7% over the year and Renault Group is down 3.5%, while Stellantis grew 5.1%. ACEA puts Stellantis and Leapmotor, which sell together through a joint company, at a combined 16.7% EU share. BYD registered 206,002 cars, up 154.4%, which puts it ahead of Tesla’s 188,035 for the year, and I covered what’s behind that climb in BYD’s European share more than doubling. Tesla sold more in September itself, 45,866 against 28,309, and the two totals aren’t quite comparable, because Tesla sells only electric cars and BYD’s number includes hybrids. Leapmotor’s 393.6% starts from 14,741 cars a year earlier, the same small-base caution I raised in my Leapmotor Germany report, and the Chery group grew 246.5% to 137,003.

Electric Cars Country by Country

ACEA splits electric registrations by market and not by carmaker, so this is the part of the picture I can show for electric cars alone.

Source: ACEA, battery-electric registrations by market, year to date, September 2026 press release. Selected markets.

Germany and France lead the growth, and in September alone their electric registrations rose 94.7% and 107.5%. Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands grew the slowest of the markets above, between 4.6% and 16.2%. ACEA’s October data will show whether electric keeps its lead over petrol on the cumulative count and whether Germany and France hold this pace.

Featured Image: Stellantis Media