Electrification of the Vehicle Fleet Leads to Lower CO2 Emissions in Europe

According to preliminary data published by the European Environment Agency (EEA), average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new passenger cars and vans registered in Europe fell significantly in 2025 compared with the previous year.

This positive trend is largely driven by the growing share of zero-emission vehicles among new registrations. The figures are based on data submitted by countries on all newly registered passenger cars and vans.

In 2025, 10.8 million new passenger cars were registered across the European Union, Norway and Iceland -almost the same number as in 2024. However, their average emissions declined to 96.7 g CO2/km, which is 10 g CO2/km lower than the previous year.

A major contributor to this reduction was the increasing share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which reached 18.9%, up by 4.5 percentage points compared with 2024. Plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for 9.7% of new registrations. The highest shares of fully electric cars were recorded in Norway (96%), followed by Denmark (69%) and Iceland (43%).

A similar trend was observed for light commercial vehicles. In 2025, 1.2 million new vans were registered in the EU, Norway and Iceland, representing a 9% decrease compared with 2024. Their average emissions fell to 172.1 g CO2/km, down by 12.8 g CO2/km from the previous year.

The share of fully electric vans increased to 10.3%, compared with 6.2% in 2024, while plug-in hybrid vans accounted for 1.7% of new registrations. The highest shares of fully electric vans were recorded in the Netherlands (84%), followed by Norway (46%) and Denmark (31%).