EU passenger car registrations rose by 1.4% year-on-year to 865,437 units in February 2026, rebounding from a 3.9% decline in January. This recovery was underpinned by growth in most of the bloc’s four largest markets, notably Germany (3.8%), Spain (7.5%), and Italy (14.0%), while France posted a sharp contraction of 14.7%.
Over the first two months of the year, new EU car registrations slipped by 1.2%. At the same time, the battery-electric vehicle (BEV) segment continued to gain momentum: its market share rose to 18.8% year-to-date, up from 15.2% a year earlier. In February alone, BEV registrations surged 20.6% year-on-year to 158,280 units, supported by robust growth in Germany (28.7%), France (27.8%), Denmark (26.1%), and Italy (81.3%).
For comparison, total EU car registrations in the whole of last year were up 1.8% from 2024.
