The ongoing Middle East conflict has seen sales of battery electric vehicles (BEV) surge in Europe, now accounting for over 20 per cent of the new car market. 

According to this week’s data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) – which collates monthly new car registration data from the European Union (EU), member nations of the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) and United Kingdom – electric vehicles accounted for 21.7 per cent of the total new car market on the back of 344,064 registrations. A total of 1,581,169 new vehicles were registered across Europe in March.

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Battery electric vehicles accounted for 344,064 new registrations in March, edging ever closer to petrol-powered vehicles which racked up 352,700 new registrations for the month, a massive drop of 10.2 per cent when compared with the same time last year.

New diesel registrations also continue to plummet, down 14 per cent year-on-year.

The strong demand for BEVs has resulted in an overall market share of 21.8 per cent, just half-a-percent shy of petrol’s 22.3 per cent. Last year, the gap between new and old energy was 10.5 per cent.

Hybrid vehicles continue to dominate the European market, now accounting for 38.4 per cent of all new car registrations in March, an increase of 1.3 per cent measured against March 2025.

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Plug-in hybrids are also growing in popularity, up 31.9 per cent year-on-year on the back of 158,377 new registrations in March, representing 10 per cent of the total market, and helping electrified vehicles (BEV, hybrid and plug-in hybrid) capture 70.2 per cent of the total new car market.

The push towards BEVs has also been felt in Australia where a total of 15,839 sales for the month of March represented 14.6 per cent market share, a significant increase compared with March 2025 when BEVs accounted for 7.5 per cent of total sales, effectively doubling their market share year-on-year.