The European car market has continued its disappointing start to 2025 with new car registrations declining 3% in February compared to the same period in 2024. The bloc’s major markets recorded declines in line with previous figures from January, including France (-3.3%), Italy (-6%) and Germany (-4.6%). Meanwhile, Spain showed growth, with an 8.4% increase. Conversely, electric vehicles continued their growth from the previous month, highlighting the shift towards electrification in Europe and traditional combustion engine vehicles’ decline. Up until February 2025, battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) accounted for 15.2% of total EU market share, signifying an increase from the low baseline of 11.5% in the comparable period of January-February 2024. New battery-electric car sales grew by 28.4%, to 255,489 units. Three of the four largest markets in the EU, accounting for 64% of all battery-electric car registrations, recorded gains: Germany (+41%), Belgium (+38%), and the Netherlands (+25%). On the other hand, France saw a slight decline of 1.3%. Plug-in-hybrid electric cars declined by 5% across the January-February 2025 period, with a total of 124,947 units. This decrease was driven by significant reductions in key markets such as Belgium (-65.3%) and France (-49.3%). As a result, plug-in-hybrid electric cars now represent 7.4% of total car registrations in the EU. EU consumers seem to have lost faith in traditional combustion engine vehicles whilst the BEVs signify a greener Europe. Full figures can be found here.