Dramatic Differences in EV Sales Growth (& Decline) in Europe — CHART

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We’ve covered T&E’s latest EV progress report for the EU, “EV progress report: Which EU carmakers are on track for 2025-27 targets?,” and it includes several interesting findings and arguments. However, one chart jumped out to me as stunning and also sort of lost in the broader narratives of the report. That is the chart above (and below) of course.

So, overall, I think it is critical to look at the big picture. The big picture is that European carmakers sold 38% more full-electric vehicles (BEVs) in the first seven months of 2025 than in the first seven months of 2024. That’s huge, significant BEV sales growth.

But, WOW, there are some dramatic differences by brand. First of all, the biggest change is at Volkswagen Group, which had its BEV sales shoot up by 90.2% this year! That’s stunning! Kudos to Volkswagen. Next up was Renault Group, with an also amazing (if not quite as amazing) 58.9% surge in BEV sales year over year.

Almost as stunning is that the 3rd biggest change in BEV sales in the EU came from Tesla, the world’s BEV leader for a decade, … because its sales in the EU declined by 38.7%. Yowch. And, getting much less attention but not far behind it in 4th, BEV sales from Volvo Cars dropped 32.8%. What is going on at Volvo?

BMW returned to the EV discussion more seriously in 2025 and saw 31.7% BEV growth in the first 7 months of the year (while perennial competitor Mercedes-Benz actually saw its BEV sales drop by 1.7%).

Then there’s the group getting so much attention in 2025 — Chinese carmakers. Combined, Chinese carmakers have sold 19.1% more BEVs in the EU so far this year. And that’s despite the higher tariffs.

Wrapping things up from the chart, Stellantis had 9.6% growth in BEV sales. Its bar looks quite small and insignificant, but 10% growth is quite a lot. It just doesn’t look like a lot in the context of the other carmaker changes. Well, also, 10% growth is not really adequate to the challenge and needs at hand.

The praise clearly goes to Volkswagen and Renault at this point, but we’ll have a closer look at how these companies are doing overall — not just in terms of growth — in our next Europe EV sales reports and world EV sales reports.