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The EU saw further registration improvements during October, with volumes continuing to grow. But which powertrains led the turnaround? Autovista24 special content editor Phil Curry examines the latest data.
The EU’s new-car market turnaround continued in October, with another month of growth for the sector.
In total, 916,609 new passenger cars were registered across the 27 member states, according to the latest data from ACEA. This was a 5.8% improvement compared to October 2024. The result was once again driven by electrified deliveries, with the internal-combustion engine (ICE) market continuing its fall.
October’s growth marks the bloc’s fourth consecutive month of improvement. However, the figures between January and October appeared precarious as the market moved into the final two months of 2025.
The EU market suffered four monthly declines in the first half of 2025. This made the task of achieving annual growth far from easy. However, in September, the market clawed back to cumulative growth.
October’s result strengthened this position. After 10 months of the year, new-car totals reached 8,974,026 units. This represented a gain of 120,725 registrations and a year-on-year growth of 1.4%.
On the back of a fourth consecutive increase, signs are currently positive for the rest of 2025. However, with such a slim margin, a bad result could push the market down. At the same point in 2024, the EU’s new-car market was up by just 0.7%. The bloc also saw four months of declines in the 10-month period.
The market is in a stronger position for 2025. It currently has double the growth, in terms of percentage points (pp), compared to the first 10 months of 2024. It would take a very bad volume decline in both months to cause a full-year drop.
This year’s largest monthly volume loss, to date, was June’s 79,777-unit decline. The second-largest was February’s 30,168-unit drop. Combined, this still equates to a 109,944-unit fall in deliveries. This highlights the plummet required for the market to suffer a year-on-year fall in 2025.
So, what would happen if both June and February were taken out of the equation? Across the remaining eight months of 2025, the EU new-car market would be up 3.4%.
October’s market increase owes much to the electric vehicle (EV) market. Made up of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), the powertrains accounted for 29.4% of the month’s overall volume.
Without EVs, the overall EU new-car sector would have seen a 4% decline in the month. EV registrations totalled 269,434 units in the month. This translated to a rise of 40.2% year on year and an additional 77,260 deliveries. The result was the second-best of the year in terms of improvement, and the best in terms of volume.
Between January and October, plug-in models accounted for 25.5% of the new-car market, an increase of 5.3pp. In total, 2,292,648 EVs took to EU roads, a 28% rise year on year.
BEVs performed best in the month. The powertrain saw 173,173 units registered across the EU, a 38.6% increase year on year. This meant an additional 48,241 all-electric models made it to EU roads, the largest unit improvement of any powertrain.
The result meant that BEVs achieved an 18.9% market share in the month, up by 4.5pp compared to October 2024. This equalled their largest monthly share in the first 10 months of 2025. However, with the largest volume of the 10-month period, October was by far the powertrain’s best performance.
However, it was not completely plain sailing for BEVs in the month. There were declines in Belgium and Sweden, down 3% and 0.8%, respectively.
This does suggest uptake in these markets has slowed. However, it was not enough to dent the overall result. This was because the technology saw strong growth in other high-volume BEV markets. In Denmark, registrations rose by 29.3%, while in France, all-electric deliveries increased by 63.2%.
Germany also saw a notable BEV improvement of 47.7%. This was joined by the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, up 27.4%, 24.9% and 90.1%, respectively.
The most impressive performance came from Poland, with an increase of 319.9% year on year in October. Slovakia and Slovenia also posted triple-digit growth of 125.1% 208.1%, respectively. Yet these were based on very low volumes.
Between January and October, EU BEV registrations rose by 25.7%, with 1,473,447 units delivered. This has given the all-electric sector a 16.4% share of the overall total, up by 3.2pp year on year.
PHEVs achieved the biggest year-on-year increase in the month, with a 43.2% rise in registrations. In total, 96,261 units were delivered, claiming 10.5% of the market, up 2.7pp. This was the technology’s highest volume of 2025 so far.
PHEVs started 2025 with two consecutive months of decline. Since then, the technology has been on an impressive run. It recorded double-digit improvement in every month since March, and has not dropped below the 31.2% growth recorded in April.
October’s PHEV performance was partly driven by Spain and Italy, which saw PHEV registrations up 145.6% and 112.1% respectively.
Germany saw a 60% year-on-year improvement. Meanwhile, the Netherlands also experienced a strong volume increase of 42.7%. Poland again saw a big jump, albeit against lower volumes, with 122.7% more PHEVs delivered.
But the powertrain did struggle in other key EV markets. France suffered a 14.4% decline in registrations, while Belgium experienced a 19% fall in volumes. This was not enough to derail PHEV progress. Yet, it may have contributed to the lowest overall growth since June 2025.
The PHEV market’s turnaround after February has been strong. After the first two months of 2025, it carved out a 5% registration decline and just a 7.4% market share.
Conversely, after 10 months, it recorded a volume increase of 32.4%. The technology captured 9.1% of overall new-car volumes, up 2.1pp. In total, 819,201 units were delivered to EU customers.
Between March and October alone, the powertrain saw an increase of 42.5%, emphasising its strong run of performances.
The EU’s hybrid market, made up of full and mild-hybrid powertrains, continued to lead the new-car sector in volume terms.
For the second time this year, the powertrain led the combined ICE market in terms of registration share. Its 34.5% hold of the total was up 1.1pp year on year. It was higher than the 32.9% taken by the combined forces of petrol and diesel registrations.
In total, 316,068 hybrid units were delivered in October, a rise of 9.4%. This equated to an increase of 27,192 units.
All but three of the 27 EU member states saw hybrid volumes rise during the month. The Netherlands saw a 3.2% decrease, alongside Estonia and Ireland, with declines of 48.2% and 11.2%, respectively. However, the latter two countries recorded volumes of under 1,000 units.
Across the first 10 months of 2025, hybrids saw growth of 15.6%, with 3,109,362 units registered. This is an increase of 420,317 units compared to the same period of last year. This gave the powertrain a 34.6% market share, up 4.2pp.
Adding the hybrid result to the EV total, in October, electrified models made up 63.9% of the overall market. This is a 7.4pp rise compared to the same period of last year. They registered 585,502 units in the month, up 21.7%.
Between January and October, electrified models saw 5,402,010 registrations, up 20.6%. After 10 months of 2025, they commanded a 60.2% share of the market, up 9.6pp.
While electrified vehicles pick up speed, petrol and diesel keep slowing. Only seven markets in the EU saw petrol volumes improve. Meanwhile, just three countries saw diesel increases.
This meant that the petrol market fell 14.3% in October, with 227,416 deliveries. The powertrain took a 24.8% share, down 5.8pp year on year. This was the lowest monthly market share of 2025 so far for the fuel type. Moreover, it marked the second month in a row that it achieved less than a quarter of the market total.
October’s result added to a year of declines for the powertrain. After 10 months of 2025, deliveries were down 18.3%, with 2,459,151 units registered. This left petrol’s share at 27.4%, a drop of 6.6pp year on year.
Meanwhile, diesel deliveries dropped 21.9% in October, as 73,830 units were taken to EU roads. This led the technology to an 8.1% market share, a drop of 2.8pp compared to the same period last year.
Across the first 10 months of 2025, diesel suffered a 24.5% fall in volumes, with a total of 821,178 units. This equated to a 9.2% market share, down 3.1pp year on year.
Combined, the ICE market saw a 16.3% decline in October with 301,246 registrations, a drop of 58,636 units. The powertrain group’s 32.9% market share was just 3.5pp ahead of the EV sector, and an 8.7pp decline year on year.
Between January and October, ICE deliveries fell 20%, with 3,280,329 registrations. This was 818,454 units lower than the same period of 2024. Petrol and diesel volumes made up 36.6% of overall new-car deliveries after 10 months, a fall of 10.3pp.
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