In May, slightly more new passenger cars were registered in the European Union than in the same month last year. Sales of Tesla and Volvo were significantly lower in May than in the same month last year.
In May, 926,582 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union. That was 1.6 percent more than in the same month last year. A small plus. If we add up the registration figures for the first five months of this year, we arrive at 4,566,970 registrations. This means 2025 is slightly behind 2024. That more than 4.56 million new passenger cars were actually 0.6 percent fewer than were registered in the first five months of 2024.
Of all new passenger cars registered in the EU in May, around 85 percent had a combustion engine. The EV share was 15.4 percent. 35.1 percent were non-plug-in hybrids, 8.2 percent were plug-in hybrids and 28.6 percent had a non-electrified petrol engine. Diesel cars accounted for a share of 9.5 percent. Cars that run on hydrogen, LPG or CNG together accounted for a share of 3.3 percent. Looking at the first five months of this year, we see that EVs accounted for 701,089 registrations and a share of 15.4 percent.
Climbers
Dacia, (+15.5 percent), Skoda (+16.9 percent), Cupra (+31.1 percent), Alfa Romeo (+25.8 percent), Alpine (+87.2 percent), Honda (+14.9 percent) Lexus (+14.2 percent), Mini (+37.5 percent) and the brands of SAIC Motor together (+38 percent) all recorded impressive growth figures behind their names. The increase in sales of Alfa Romeo is of course mainly due to Junior, while at Alpine the growth undoubtedly comes from the A290.
Of course, not every brand records impressive growth figures behind its name. The Volkswagen Group is assigning Seat an increasingly smaller role and that is having an effect on sales: they fell by 21.6 percent in May. Now that we are with the VW Group: Porsche is also taking a hit (-7.2 percent). Within Stellantis, Opel (-14.2 percent) and Fiat (-13 percent) are the biggest losers, followed by DS (-7.7 percent). The relatively small Smart is also not doing well and saw its registrations in the EU fall by no less than 68.7 percent.
Volvo is also not recording the best figures. The brand saw its registrations in the EU fall by 20.3 percent in May. Over the first five months of this year, it is 19 percent behind the same period last year. Tesla has also been suffering from falling demand for months. In May, 40.5 percent fewer Teslas were sold than in the same month last year. In total, this concerned only 8,729 cars. Looking at the first five months of this year, Tesla itself is 45.2 percent behind the same period last year.