EU: 1.5 million new battery-only electric cars in 2023

A total of 1.5 million new battery-only electric passenger cars were registered in the EU in 2023, bringing the total number to 4.5 million. This represents a 48.5% increase compared with 2022 when the total number was 3.0 million, according to figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, WAM reports. 

The share of battery-only electric cars among new registrations reached 14.6% in 2023. This marks a continuation of the rapid increase in the adoption of electric vehicles in the EU. This share of battery-only electric cars in new registrations remained below 1% until 2018, but has grown notably over the past 4 years, rising to 5.3% in 2020, 9.0% in 2021, 12.1% in 2022 and 14.6% in 2023.

When it comes to the stock of passenger cars, on 31 December 2023, battery-only electric cars accounted for 1.7% of all cars in the EU, with noticeable variations among EU countries.

In Denmark, battery-only electric cars made up 7.1% of all passenger cars. Similarly, high shares were observed in Sweden (5.9%), Luxembourg (5.1%) and the Netherlands (5.0%).

Conversely, 14 countries recorded shares below 1%, with the lowest shares recorded in Cyprus, Greece and Poland, each at 0.2%