Acea data

EU cars: registrations in August up 5.3% year-on-year

The leap in August almost wiped out the deficit from the beginning of the year: in the first eight months of 2025, in fact, registrations in the EU totalled 7,168,848, down 0.1% from 7,179,268 in 2024

25 September 2025

3' min read

August saw strong growth in new car registrations in the European Union, up 5.3% year-on-year to 677,786 units from 643,394 in the same month of 2024. This was announced by Acea, the association of European manufacturers. Among the main EU markets, Germany's +5% with 207,229 registrations stands out, but above all Spain's +17.2% (61,315 units).

The leap in August almost wiped out the deficit from the beginning of the year: in the first eight months of 2025, registrations in the EU totalled 7,168,848, down 0.1% from 7,179,268 in 2024. In terms of registrations in the first eight months, battery-electric cars reached a share of 15.8%, up from 12.6% in August 2024: in August the annual increase was 30.2%.

Three of the four largest markets in the EU, accounting for 62% of battery electric car registrations, recorded an increase over the eight months: Germany (+39.2%), Belgium (+14.4%) and the Netherlands (+5.1%). This contrasts with France, which recorded a 2% drop, despite a 29.3% year-on-year increase in August 2025.

Electric hybrid car registrations continue to grow, taking 34.7 per cent of the market and remaining the preferred choice of EU consumers with 2,485,069 units in the eight months, driven by growth in the four largest markets: France (+30.5 per cent), Spain (+29.3 per cent), Germany (+10.1 per cent) and Italy (+9.4 per cent). Registrations of plug-in hybrid electric cars continued to grow, reaching 631,783 units in the same period. This was driven by increased volumes in key markets such as Spain (+99.9%) and Germany (+61.2%), but also in Italy (+62.6%). As a result, plug-in hybrid electric cars now account for 8.8% of car registrations in the EU, up from 6.9% in 2024.

Meanwhile, the combined market share of petrol and diesel cars dropped to 37.5 %, down from 47.6 % in the same period in 2024: petrol car registrations fell by 19.7 % in the eight months, with declines in all major markets. France recorded the most significant drop, with a 33.5% drop in registrations, followed by Germany (-25.2%), Italy (-17.6%) and Spain (-13.1%). With 2,012,580 new cars registered so far, petrol's market share dropped to 28.1% from 34.9% in the same period last year. Similarly, the diesel car market decreased by 25.7 per cent to 9.4 per cent in August 2025. Furthermore, the year-on-year change in August 2025 showed a decline of 16.3% for petrol and 17.5% for diesel.

Western Europe overall data

Turning to figures for the entire Western European region (EU + EFTA + UK), 791,349 cars were registered in August, 4.7% more than in the same month of 2024. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 8,691,840 cars have been sold, an increase of 0.4 per cent over the same period last year, according to figures from Acea, the European manufacturers' association. In the first eight months of 2025, 1,132,603 electric cars were registered in the EU, accounting for 15.8% of the European market.

The Stellantis Group

In the same region (EU + Efta + UK), the Stellantis group sold 106,078 cars in August, 2.2% more than in the same month of 2024. The market share was 13.4% compared to 13.7% in the previous year. Since the start of the year, the group's registrations were 1,298,913, down 7.4% on the same period in 2024. The share is down from 16.2% to 14.9%.