Registration growth in May not enough to bolster EU new-car market

25 June 2025

While May saw new-car registrations grow in the EU, this was not enough to boost the year-to-date figures. Which markets and powertrains succeeded, and which struggled? Autovista24 editor Tom Geggus explores the data.

A total of 926,581 new cars were delivered across the EU in May, according to the latest figures from ACEA. This equates to year-on-year growth of 1.6% for the region.

Alongside April, this was only the second month to see growth so far in 2025. Meanwhile, the EU saw declines in January, February and March. This has left year-to-date deliveries down 0.6% compared to the first five months of 2024.

Of the 27 EU member states, 19 recorded new-car market growth in May. Lithuania recorded the largest registration increase, up 43.8% year on year. However, this is a low-volume market, with only 4,092 new units hitting the roads.

Of the larger markets, Spain continued its positive trend, recording 112,820 registrations and year-on-year growth of 18.6%. Germany was the leading market in terms of volume, marking 239,297 deliveries, up 1.2% year on year.

Meanwhile, France saw its registrations fall by 12.3% in May to 123,918 units. This was the third largest decline in the EU after Romania and Estonia, with respective drops of 32.7% and 25.9%. However, France suffered the largest volume drop in the EU, of 17,380 units.

Hybrids grow EU hold

Hybrids, accounting for mild and full versions, were a continuing source of growth for the EU’s new-car market in May. Deliveries were up by 16% year on year to 315,597 units. The powertrain’s market share increased by 4.3 percentage points (pp) to 34.1%. This meant hybrids continued to be the most popular powertrain in the EU.

Germany accounted for the greatest volume of hybrids, reaching 66,990 units, up 16.7%. Italy was not far behind with 60,619 registrations, although this was only an increase of 8.7%. Portugal saw the greatest acceleration in hybrid volumes, up 75.7% to 5,810 units.

In the year to date, 1.6 million hybrids have been delivered across the EU. This marks growth of 19.8% from the first five months of 2024. With a share of 35.1%, the powertrain’s grip on the market grew by 6pp.

EVs accelerate in EU

Electric vehicles (EVs), consisting of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), continued to see growth in May.

BEVs alone made up 15.4% of all new-car registrations in the bloc, up 7.2pp. With 142,776 models delivered, all-electric cars recorded growth of 25%. PHEVs grew even further, with volumes increasing by 46.9% to 87,301 units. This meant the technology claimed a 9.4% market share, growing from 6.5% in May 2024.

Cyprus saw BEV growth of 190.2% in the month, however, volumes only reached 119 units. The largest market for the powertrain was Germany with 43,060 deliveries, equating to growth of 44.9%.

Spain also impressed, with registrations up 104.1% to 8,965 units, thanks in part to a renewal of its incentive scheme. This brought it closer to the big BEV markets of Sweden and the Netherlands.

PHEV deliveries increased by 657.6% to 250 units in Latvia. Meanwhile, Germany reported the greatest demand, reaching 25,181 deliveries.

Together, BEVs and PHEVs made up 24.8% of the EU new-car market in May, up 5.8pp. Registration of the powertrain grouping reached 230,077 units, meaning year-on-year growth of 32.5%.

When combined with hybrids, electrified vehicles accounted for 58.9% of all registrations, up by 10pp compared with May 2024. Registration growth hit 22.4%, with 545,674 models delivered.

In the year to date, electrified growth reached 20.7% with approximately 2.68 million units delivered, taking a 58.6% share, climbing 10.3pp. Some, 1.08 million of these units were EVs, up 22% with a 23.6% hold on the market. This was up from 19.2% at the same point last year.

Breaking down the EV grouping, 701,089 BEVs were registered in the year to date, up 26.1%. BEVs made up 15.4% of the market, up 3.3pp. With deliveries growing by 15% to 375,182 units, PHEVs accounted for 8.2% of all registrations, up 1.1pp.

ICE falling apart

The gains enjoyed by the electrified market was balanced by the losses experienced by internal-combustion engine (ICE) models. In May, combined registrations of petrol and diesel cars reached 349,651 units. This was down by 21% year on year, as the powertrain group’s share fell by 10.9pp to 37.7%,

Diesel models saw the greater drop of the two powertrains, down 27.6% to 85,698 registrations. Its market share hit 9.2% from 13% at the same point last year. Petrol-powered models accounted for 28.5% of the overall total, down from 35.6%. Falling by 18.6%, 263,953 deliveries were recorded.

Romania saw some of the greatest ICE declines in the EU. Its petrol registrations dropped by 56.5% while its diesel deliveries declined by 51%. However, apart from hybrids, all powertrains saw declines in the country last month. Notably, Lithuania saw diesel and petrol make gains in May as their deliveries increased by 61.2% and 23.8% respectively. However, total volumes of each powertrain were in the hundreds.

In the year to date, petrol’s decline has been severe, diving 20.2% to nearly 1.31 million units. The fuel type made up 28.6% of the whole market. Diesel ended up far behind this at 9.5%, dropping 3.4pp with 433,462 units, down 26.6%.

The fuel type’s market share was ahead of PHEVs. This was mostly due to strong volumes in Germany, which saw 175,717 diesel registrations in the first five months of the year. While this was down 21.1%, the country is the only one to have deliveries totalling six figures.

Yet the continued declines in the EU ICE market meant registrations fell by 21.9% to 1.74 million between January and May. The market share dropped accordingly, to 38.1% from the 48.5% recorded in the first five months of 2024.