Battery electric vehicle share of the new car market rose past 30% in the European Union in August, the bloc beating any suggestion that appetite for EVs is waning. 

There were just under 203,000 electric cars registered in 16 of Europe’s key markets during the month, a 54% increase on the same month in 2025. 

The performance has lifted the year-to-date performance of EV sales to 22.5%, beating market forecasts that suggested electric cars would struggle to get past a 20% share of the market in 2026. 

Italy has had the most EV sales growth in 2026, up nearly 85% so far, but from a low base with an electric market share of just 6.5%. 

It’s France and Germany that are driving the increase in zero emission vehicle registrations, accounting for nearly half of the EU’s electric sales between them. 

France’s EV sales are up over 72% so far this year, with Germany’s up nearly 35%. The Nordic states continue to impress, with EVs in Norway, Finland and Denmark maintaining an over-50% market share. 

An incredible 97.8% of cars sold in Norway so far this year have been electric, the country making use of its impressive sources of renewable electricity to power its EV fleet. 

Sweden, the Netherlands and Poland are the only outliers on the list, posting drops in electric car sales in the year-to-date figures for 2026, although that only serves to highlight how impressive the overall figures are. 

The numbers have been put together by research organisation New Automotive and European trade association E-Mobility Europe, which say they have focused on the 16 key markets because they represent 90% of total sales, with readily available data that’s needed for monitoring the markets. 

European carmakers’ association ACEA published data for the first half of 2026 back in July that showed electric vehicle market share at 20.7%, up a third on the previous year.