Europe EV Sales Report — Second Best Month Ever for BEVs!!!

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Leapmotor T03 wins the City Car category for the first time ever!

EVs are picking up in Europe, with some 246,000 plugin vehicles being registered in Europe in August. That’s up 36% year over year (YoY), above the yearly growth rate of 27%.

This is a positive sign when considering that the overall market (currently at ~8.7 million units YTD) is basically stagnant (up 5% in August, 0% YTD).

Interestingly, while BEVs seem to be on a steady growth rate (in August, they were up 27% YoY, to 163,000 units), PHEVs are really picking up the pace, jumping 56% YoY in August, their highest growth rate in over three years. They were spearheaded by the #4 BYD Seal U PHEV (aka Euro-spec BYD Song PHEV), but the VW Tiguan PHEV is also experiencing a second youth, thanks to the new generation of the model. PHEVs scored over 83,000 sales in August, and their YTD numbers are now up 36% to close to 793,000 units.

As such, August saw the BEV share of the overall European auto market reach 21% (31% for plugin vehicles overall if we add PHEVs to BEVs), which was their second highest score ever, after the 22% of August 2023.

Compared to August 2024, BEVs jumped 4 percentage points — 12 months ago, the BEV share was 17% — which represented a 24% growth rate. If this growth rate (24%) continues in the coming years, we should have 62% BEV share by 2030 and should reach 100% BEV share by 2033.

What do you think about this target? Am I being too optimistic?

A note about plugless hybrids (HEVs): in August, they grew 12% YoY, to 33% share. Added to the 31% of plugins, that means that 64% of all new cars in Europe had some sort of electrification. It also meant that the August result was below the YTD result (35%)…. Is peak HEV coming soon?Fingers crossed.

Despite this positive month, BEVs kept their year-to-date numbers at 18% (27% for PHEVs and BEVs combined).

The big news this month was the Tesla Model Y, which returned to the monthly leadership position. Here’s a more detailed analysis of the top 5 EVs this month:

#1 Tesla Model Y — Tesla’s star player delivered 8,371 sales, with the crossover thus returning to the top of the best sellers list in Europe. Interestingly, while the older Model 3 grew 15% in August, the fresher Model Y was actually down in August, by 38% YoY. Reasons for this? Well, the Model Y redesign was less fortunate than that of the Model 3. After all, the design team took inspiration for the new Model Y on the failure-tastic Cybertruck. In comparison, the Toyota-tized Model 3 looks far more friendly, even if less cool, than the original Porsche-inspired Model 3/Y. But … Tesla is discounting the Model Y more than the Model 3, so the crossover’s slowdown cannot be explained by Tesla’s pricing policy. Is it just an unfortunate design? Increased competition? What do you think?

#2 Skoda Elroq — After a close race with the Tesla Model 3, the recently introduced Elroq won another medal in August, thanks to 6,385 registrations. Will we see it go north of the 10,000-unit mark in September? Volkswagen Group has struck gold with this one. Despite minimum effort (basically, it shortened the Enyaq), Skoda won a regular top three presence. Although not as spacious as its bigger sibling, it compensates for that with a competitive price, starting at 34,000 euros, which makes it one of the cheapest compact crossovers on the market, Chinese included. Could this be the new value-for-moneyking?

#3 Tesla Model 3 — The Tesla sedan’s 3rd place finish came thanks to 6,380 registrations in August, a significant 15% sales increase YoY. Although, if we compare to August 2023, sales were down 46%…. This allowed the US automaker to win both gold and bronze in August. The competition is increasing by the day, and it will become more difficult for the Texan brand to achieve two presences in the podium. At 49,000 units delivered this year, the Model 3 is back at 2022 sales levels, a time when BEVs were selling half of what they are selling today….

#4 VW ID.3 — The German hatchback is finally living up to its promise, winning another podium position in August thanks to 5,500 registrations. Benefitting from a refresh, and a significant price cut to help things along, the VW model saw its sales jump over 55% in August, allowing it to become the best selling electric hatchback in August. Expect the Volkswagen hatchback to continue running at a pace of some 6,500 units per month, and winning several top 5 presences as a result.

#5 BMW iX1 — BMW’s compact crossover is having a moment and managed to win another top 5 presence, thanks to 5,456 registrations in August. This crossover has become a backbone of BMW Group’s success, helping the company to stay afloat until the arrival of the cavalry(ahem, the upcoming Neue Klasse BEVs…). Despite minimum effort — basically, it is the BEV version of the ICE BMW X1 — sales are up 46% YoY. Average specs (65 kWh battery, 130 kW DC charging) and the badge (and lease rates) still matter in many European markets, which is helping it to stay successful.

Outside the top 5, the highlights come from Hyundai, with the Korean make placing the recently introduced Inster funky hatchback onto the table, at #17, with 3,256 units.

Another model shining was the #18 Ford Explorer EV. With 3,191 sales, Ford’s crossover with a VW heart is finding its spot on the market, which raises the question — Will we see a future Ford Fiesta EV based on the upcoming VW ID.2? Fingers crossed….

Outside the top 20, the highlight is the Leapmotor T03, with the small Chinese EV winning for the first time the City Car category, thanks to 1,439 units, which was enough to beat the long-running leader Fiat 500e (1,248 units) and even the much hyped BYD Dolphin Surf (Euro-spec BYD Seagull), that collected 1,315 units.

Still, it is sad that the leader of the A-segment has collected just 1,439 units in August, when the full size leader, the Audi A6 e-tron, registered 2,253 in the same period. Looking at this topic with a more positive view, this means that the future Renault Twingo EV, set to land in 2026, will have plenty of opportunities to grow.

Looking at the 2025 ranking, as expected, August was a quiet month. The Skoda Elroq and Tesla Model 3 both rose two positions, to 5th and 6th, respectively.

It will be interesting to see how these two will behave in September, as both are expected to have posted five-digit scores that month. That sales level will allow them to climb a few more positions, so the Renault 5’s podium position will probably go to one of these two. Question is, which one?

Another model that will likely go up next month, will be the BMW iX1, thus joining the top half of the table.

In the second half of the table, the only position change was the Cupra Born climbing one position, to #19, at the expense of the Toyota C-HR PHEV, now down to #20.

Volkswagen Group has nine representatives in the table, which is starting to look like what BYD is doing in China….

Having a quick look at the August overall brand ranking, the highlights were the significant drops of #17 Tesla (-23% YoY), which nevertheless was a better result than the YTD result (-32%), which could mean that the Texan’s fall into the abyss is bottoming out in Europe, while #19 Volvo (-30% YoY) is suffering from the EX30’s downturn, the compact crossover was down 68% YoY in August, to little more than 2,000 units.

#20 SEAT was down 16% YoY in August, but that isn’t really that concerning for the Volkswagen Group, when we consider that its other Spanish brand, the more aspirational Cupra, was #15 and posted a 56% growth rate, the biggest of the top 20.

Just outside the top 20 (but not for long…), we have China’s BYD, in #22, posting an amazing 217% growth rate YoY. That’s all thanks to its sprawling lineup, now up to 10 different models, with 8 BEVs and 2 PHEVs. (At this pace, BYD will surpass Mercedes at the number of different models offered by … next year) 

As for the plugin auto brand ranking, the leader, Volkswagen, has lost share (11.2% in August vs. 11.3% in July). Still, it holds a comfortable 2.2% share lead over #2 BMW.

This means that the German make is on its way to ending a three-year Tesla reign in Europe (2022, 2023, 2024), winning its first manufacturer title since 2021.

Speaking of Tesla, the Texan automaker saw its share rise by 0.1% from 5.6% to 5.7%, keeping its #4 spot. Not bad, but … we are talking about the trophy holder. Tesla’s 2024 title was its 3rd in a row, and now it is looking to secure a spot in the top 5! The end of an era?

Below the top 5, a deserving mention goes to rising BYD, which saw its share grow to 4.3%, a 0.1 percentage point increase over July.

The Chinese brand surpassed Kia in August, and is now 8th. But Skoda and Audi (5.3% each) are too far ahead to get caught this year. Next year, however….  Heck, we might even see BYD run for the podium in 2026!

Arranging things by automotive group, Volkswagen Group is firmly in the lead, despite losing 0.2% share in August. It is now at 27.8% share, a market share that is comparable to BYD’s in China and Tesla’s in the USA. This is an important metric for the German conglomerate if it wants to stay relevant in a fully electrified global automotive market.

If you can’t win at home….

BMW Group (10.6%) remained comfortable in the runner-up position in August, while #3 Stellantis’ highway to hell seems to have no end (8.9% in July vs. 8.7% now). With too many brands and too little money to develop them, maybe it would be good to sell a couple of them? Say, Lancia, Chrysler, and Maserati? These storied makes need attention and lots of money in order for them to develop and flourish, and right now, those two items are in short supply at Stellantis….

Oh, and if DS and Abarth rejoined Citroen and Fiat, that wouldn’t hurt either.

But back to the top 5: Hyundai–Kia (8.1%) profited from a good month from Hyundai, which compensated for a slower month from Kia, and remained in 4th, while #5 Geely (7.7%) remained stable, despite Volvo’s woes.

While Volvo is the main culprit for slowing sales, Polestar, Zeekr, and Lynk & Co helped to compensate the Swede’s fall. That Volvo EX60 can’t come soon enough…