Sales of fully electric cars in Europe's main auto markets jumped by almost a third in the first quarter of 2026, as drivers looked for alternatives to combustion engines after the war in Iran caused the highest spike in petrol prices in years.
New battery-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations, a proxy for sales, rose 29.4% from a year ago to almost 560,000 in the quarter and were up 51.3% at over 240,000 in March alone in 15 European markets, data collected by trade association E-Mobility Europe and research firm New Automotive showed on Monday.
Last year, those markets accounted for 94% of all BEV sales in the European Union and the European Free Trade Association, whose countries align with EU laws regulating CO2 emissions, data by the ACEA auto lobby shows.
"March's surge in electric car sales is one of Europe's biggest recent gains in energy security, in a month when oil dependence has become a real vulnerability," E-Mobility Europe Secretary General Chris Heron said in a statement. �"Reuters
