New diesel car registrations in the European Union have fallen by 67 per cent over the past decade, while battery-only electric vehicles now account for 13.9 per cent of new sales, according to data published by Eurostat for January 2025.

The 2025 edition of Key figures on European transport presents comprehensive data on the transport of people and goods across the European Union and highlights major shifts in new passenger car registrations.

The publication brings together all the key data on transport while also setting out the broader context, covering infrastructure, economic impact, energy use and environmental effects.

The latest analysis places particular focus on registrations of new passenger cars and how their motor energy types have evolved over the past decade.

A time series covering the years 2014 to 2024 for 20 EU countries with available data illustrates how the composition of newly registered cars has changed.

These 20 countries accounted for 93 per cent of new passenger cars registered within the EU in 2024.

Over this period, the number of diesel-powered vehicles, including hybrids, decreased by 67 per cent.

By contrast, the number of petrol-powered vehicles, also including hybrids, increased by 60 per cent.

For alternative types of motor energy, the data show that there were 45 times as many registrations of new battery-only electric vehicles in 2024 as in 2014.

Battery-only electric vehicles accounted for 13.9 per cent of all new car registrations in 2024, compared with just 0.3 per cent in 2014.

Registrations of new vehicles using other alternative fuels, including liquefied petroleum gases, natural gas, hydrogen and fuel cells, bioethanol, biodiesel, bi-fuel and other fuels, were 13 per cent higher in 2024 than in 2014.

Overall, the figures underline a significant transformation in the EU car market over the past decade, marked by a sharp contraction in diesel, steady growth in petrol and a rapid expansion of electric mobility within the bloc’s transport sector.