Eco123 Revista da Economia e Ecologia
05/09/2026 – 11/09/2026 By Uwe Heitkamp
Edition 35.2026
Electric vehicles are steadily transforming Europe’s roads, albeit not at the same pace everywhere. In Norway, the transition is well advanced: 98.29% of all new cars registered in the first half of 2026 were electric vehicles, whilst those powered by petrol and diesel engines saw a sharp decline – by more than 58% and 35%, respectively. The rest of Europe is catching up fast. Bulgaria, Latvia and Slovenia recorded a sharp rise in the uptake of electric vehicles compared with the previous year. In Bulgaria and Latvia, the share of electric vehicles exceeded 67%, whilst in Slovenia the share rose by 47.4% to 17,090 vehicles. These leaps show that even smaller markets are rapidly moving towards electric mobility.
However, this replacement effect is by no means uniform. Although the share of electric vehicles in Latvia has risen dramatically, petrol and diesel models still dominate the market, accounting for 79.29% of all new registrations in the first half of 2026. The contrast is even more pronounced in Bulgaria, where 84.03% of newly purchased vehicles continue to run on conventional fuels and registrations of diesel vehicles have actually risen by 11.56% compared with the previous year. Factors such as income levels, the infrastructure available for charging electric vehicles and the affordability of such cars continue to influence adoption rates, as consumers in lower-income markets remain more sensitive to costs.
Electric mobility in Europe
Let’s carry on with the good news: Portugal ranks ninth in Europe in the transition from petrol- or diesel-powered vehicles to electric mobility, far ahead of Germany or France.
By 2026, Europe will have made greater strides in the transition to electric vehicles than ever before, yet the shift away from petrol and diesel-powered cars is far from uniform. Across the continent, electric vehicles are moving from the fringes of the car market into the mainstream, supported by an expansion in the availability of charging networks, stricter regulations over emissions and increasing pressure on manufacturers to reduce their reliance on internal combustion engines.
However, the path to this transition is also becoming increasingly complex. At present, only a few countries, led by the Nordic nations, are on the verge of completely replacing fossil fuels with more environmentally friendly alternatives. To track global demand for electric cars, the investigation team analysed the sales and new registration figures for the first half of 2026 from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) to identify which countries are leading the way in the adoption of electric vehicles.
The European car market is changing rapidly. In the first half of 2026, hybrid vehicles were the most popular type of new car, accounting for 37% of registrations, whilst battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles together accounted for a further 32.5%. By comparison, petrol and diesel vehicles accounted for fewer than three in ten new cars, with market shares of 22% and 6.5%, respectively. The figures point to a market increasingly dominated by electrified powertrains, even though the shift is not simply a transition from internal combustion engines to fully electric cars. Hybrid technology is currently at the heart of this transformation, whilst all-electric and plug-in hybrid models are rapidly increasing their overall market share.
In Germany, Europe’s largest car market, registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) rose by 47.96% in the first half of 2026, bringing the share of all-electric cars to 24.79%.
Note: ECO123 used research material from https://www.tradingpedia.com for this report
