New car sales in Europe rose in February after falling in January, while sustained demand for electric vehicles helped Elon Musk’s all-electric brand Tesla resume growth for the first time since December 2024, official data showed on Tuesday.
Overall car registrations, a proxy for sales, in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association were up 1.7 per cent to 979,321 vehicles sold in the month, according to the European auto lobby ACEA.
Two-thirds of those were electrified, either battery-electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid.
The EU and Britain are walking back some regulations aimed at reducing CO2 emissions after pressure from domestic carmakers who say they are struggling to turn a profit on EV sales while fending off competition from Chinese rivals.
But battery-electric and plug-in hybrid sales have been steadily on the rise in Europe thanks to new, cheaper models coming into the market and national policies which encourage EV adoption.
Environmental groups warn that the repositioning of some petrol models as “mild hybrids” has also contributed to growing EV sales, while only modestly lowering emissions.
Tesla’s February registrations were up 11.8 per cent year-on-year in February, reversing a thirteen-month negative streak, the ACEA data showed.
They were marginally lower than those of its Chinese competitor BYD, whose sales more than doubled from the same month of 2025. Both brands had a market share of 1.8 per cent in the month.
Sales of top domestic carmakers Volkswagen and Stellantis rose by 2.2 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively, while Renault’s fell by 14.3 per cent.
In the EU, total car sales rose 1.4 per cent to 865,437 vehicles.
Registrations of battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid electric cars were up 20.6 per cent, 32.1 per cent and 10.1 per cent, respectively, to account collectively for 67 per cent of the bloc’s registrations, up from 58.5 per cent in February 2025. (Reporting by Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Jan Harvey)
