European car market January 2025: registrations -2.6%, EVs growing

If the Italian new car market is crying in light of the -5.9% in January 2025 , the European one is not laughing given the 2.6% contraction recorded in the same period. According to data from Acea, the continental association of manufacturers, in the first month of the year 831,201 vehicles were registered against 853,249 in January 2024, due to the decline that occurred in the main European markets now consolidated for at least a quarter. This time it is France that is suffering the greatest contraction (-6.2%), followed by Italy (-5.9%) and Germany, which in the last month managed to limit the decline to 2.8% after the double-digit collapses of the last period. The positive data comes from electric cars (+34% in January), whose growth however is not able to compensate for the general decline in volumes with related negative consequences, feared by detractors, in terms of employment.

As mentioned, in January 2025, electric car sales grew by 34%, reaching 124,341 units, which equates to a market share of 15% against 10.9% in January 2024. A sprint driven by Northern European countries, which shared double-digit gains in January: Germany (+53.5%), Belgium (+37.2%) and the Netherlands (+28.2%). Italy is a special case, because the 126% growth in January, where 6,729 new battery-powered cars were sold, was heavily influenced by the uncertainty over incentives that hovered over the Italian market in January 2024, which closed with just 2,984 units registered. France bucks the trend, recording a slight decline of -0.5% on BEVs.

After December, January 2025 was also a difficult month for petrol cars , with a decline of 18.9%, affected by all the main markets: France -28.2%, followed by Germany (-23.7%), Italy (-17%) and Spain (-11.1%). With 244,763 new cars registered last month, the market share for petrol fell to 29.4%, down from 35.4% in the same month last year. The latest collapse of diesel is hardly news anymore, having fallen by 27% in January where it recorded a market share of 10%. The opposite trend for non-plug-in hybrid cars (mild-hybrid and full-hybrid), in January 2025 up by 18.4% with 290,014 units registered, equal to 34.9% of the EU market share. Plug-in hybrids also suffered another contraction: -8.5% last month with 61,406 units sold. Plug-in hybrids now represent a niche of 7.4% of total car sales across the Union.