- Out of the whole of Europe, the United Kingdom saw the most battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations in 2024, according to data collated by Schmidt Automotive Research.
- As shown by the UK’s SMMT data, 381,970 new BEV registrations were recorded in 2024.
- This put it first place in Europe for the first time, followed by Germany, who recorded 380,609 BEV registrations in the same period.
UK BEV sales lead the way in Europe
As we reported earlier this week, electric vehicle market share in the UK hit a record high thanks to this, with 19.6% of new cars registered in 2024 being fully electric examples. However, this still means the industry as a whole failed to meet the 22% ZEV mandate in place for the year – although individual OEMs such as Stellantis have already confirmed that they’ve met the required threshold. Nonetheless, the achievement is still promising for UK EV adoption – particularly if the 2030 ZEV mandate is to be successful. Combine that with the recent news that the UK is on track to have 300,000 public chargers by 2030, and the image looks even more positive for the country. Time will tell whether at the end of 2025, the UK can remain in the top space for the most EVs sold in Europe.
While the UK took the European crown of buying the most electric cars in 2024, it was a slightly different story when it came to market share. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given consistently impressive market share figures, that feat went to Norway – with 88.9% of cars sold in 2024 being fully electric – up from 82.4% in 2023, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.
