In 2025, nearly one in four new cars sold in the UK was fully electric — 23.4%, comfortably above the EU average of 17.4%. Include hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and over 71% of new UK cars now have an electric motor of some kind.
But the numbers vary widely across Europe. Norway hit 96% fully electric. Romania managed just 6% — yet 49% of its new cars were hybrids.
The gap comes down to a combination of charging infrastructure, government incentives, and tax policy — factors that vary enormously from country to country.
Mitu Cristian, Automotive Market Analyst at AutoCareStore.ro, compiled ACEA registration data across 27 EU markets and found a clear pattern. “In countries like Romania, Poland, and Hungary, consumers aren’t rejecting electric vehicles,” [he/she] says. “They’re choosing hybrids because the charging infrastructure to support fully electric isn’t there yet. Compare that to Norway or the Netherlands, where dense charging networks made going fully electric the obvious choice.”
Norway’s 96% is the result of nearly two decades of policy. Over that period, the country eliminated purchase tax on EVs, removed VAT (saving buyers 25%), offered reduced tolls, and gave electric cars access to bus lanes. Combined with Norway’s high taxation on petrol and diesel vehicles, this meant an EV was often cheaper to buy than an equivalent petrol car — the opposite of most European markets. The estimated total cost of these incentives: NOK 640 billion, roughly €55 billion between 2007 and 2025.
Hybrids, meanwhile, receive no tax breaks in Norway — they’re taxed the same as petrol cars. That’s why Norway skipped the hybrid step almost entirely and went straight to fully electric, unlike most of Europe where hybrids are the most popular electrified option.
Norway also passed a “charging right” law: apartment residents can legally request a charger installation, and their housing cooperative cannot refuse without technical justification. Today, 73% of all EV miles in Norway are charged at home, and the country has 436 public chargers per 100,000 people — more than three times the UK’s 127.
Denmark (69% fully electric), the Netherlands (40%), and Sweden (37%) followed similar paths — years of consistent policy and dense charging networks.
One argument you hear often is that countries with lots of flat-dwellers can’t go fully electric. France suggests otherwise.
In Paris, 97% of housing is apartments — a higher rate than Bucharest, where just 70–80% of residents live in flats. Yet France reached 16.6% fully electric in 2025. The difference? France has roughly 177,000 public charging points — about 190 per 100,000 people — and passed a “droit à la prise” (right to a plug) law back in 2011, giving any apartment resident the legal right to request a charger installation.
Romania, by comparison, has fewer than 4,500 public chargers — under 50 per 100,000 people. Paris has a higher proportion of apartments than Bucharest, but nearly four times the chargers per capita.
“Paris has a higher apartment density than Bucharest, but nearly four times the chargers per capita,” says Mitu Cristian, whose analysis cross-referenced ACEA sales data with EAFO infrastructure figures for each country. “Infrastructure and policy determine the path, not the housing.”
Not every country is following the same path. In markets where charging infrastructure is sparse and government incentives are weaker, hybrids have become the practical alternative to going fully electric.
In Romania, 49% of new cars sold in 2025 were hybrids, while only 6% were fully electric. In Bucharest, most housing consists of communist-era apartment blocks with no garages, limited private parking, and electrical grids not designed for EV charging. Only 40% of Romanian EV owners can charge at home — the lowest rate among 33 countries surveyed globally.
Government policy hasn’t helped. Romania’s main BEV subsidy went from €10,000 in 2023 to €5,100 in 2024, was suspended entirely in mid-2025, then relaunched at €3,500. A hybrid delivers fuel savings without needing a charging point — and that makes it the practical choice.
“We see it in the purchasing data across Romania — customers want electrified vehicles, but they’re choosing hybrids because it’s the option that works with the infrastructure they have,” says Mitu Cristian, AutoCareStore.ro.
Romania isn’t alone. Hungary (51% hybrid), Poland (46%), Italy (44%), and Spain (42%) show the same pattern. Whether this counts as progress or a slower transition depends on your perspective, but the pattern is consistent: where infrastructure and incentives are lacking, hybrids fill the gap.
The total electrified share is closer than it first appears — Norway at 99%, the UK and France around 71%, Romania at 55%. The real difference is the mix: Norway is almost entirely fully electric, while Romania is mostly hybrids. The UK sits in between, with a higher share of fully electric (23.4%) than the EU average (17.4%), alongside a large hybrid segment.
The combination of charging infrastructure, tax incentives, and government policy is what shapes which route a country takes. Norway made EVs cheaper than petrol cars through tax breaks and built the chargers to support them. Romania did neither.
Two developments are worth watching. BYD nearly tripled its European sales in 2025, growing 268.6% year-on-year to 187,657 units. Affordable Chinese EVs could make fully electric viable in markets where €40,000+ European models are out of reach for most buyers. Dacia is also developing an EU-made electric car priced under €18,000 — built in Romania.
Meanwhile, the EU revised its 2035 emissions target in December 2025 to a 90% reduction rather than a full ban, allowing plug-in hybrids and e-fuel vehicles to continue beyond 2035. The UK has taken a stricter line, with the 2030 zero-emission target reinstated by the Labour government in April 2025 and the ZEV mandate requiring manufacturers to sell 33% fully electric by 2026.
Across the EU, 61% of new cars sold in 2025 had an electric motor of some kind — though that includes a large share of standard hybrids, which still rely on petrol. Fully electric accounted for 17.4% of EU sales. Petrol dropped to 26.6% of new registrations and diesel to 8.9%. In the UK, 71.5% of new cars had some form of electric motor, with 23.4% fully electric.
The direction of travel is clear, but the pace and route vary widely. The type of electric car a country buys has more to do with its charging infrastructure, tax incentives, and housing stock than with its climate ambitions.
