Europe’s plug-in car sales surged by an astounding 24% year-on-year in October 2023, demonstrating customers’ growing interest in sustainable mobility. According to InsideEVs, this sales gain enabled plug-in cars to slightly beat the overall market growth last month with a market share of 25%.
Plug-in car sales
New plug-in car registrations in Europe totaled 260,324 units last month, according to EV Volumes data researcher Jose Pontes shared via CleanTechnica. This sales figure represents a 24% YoY increase, a significant lead over the overall market’s growth of just 14% YoY.
Without further ado, here is the monthly and year-to-date registration data on Europe’s plug-in cars.
Monthly
| Sales | Market Share | |
| BEVs | about *169,000 | 16% |
| PHEVs | about *91,000 | 9% |
| Total | 260,324 (up 24%) | 25% |
YTD
| Sales | Market Share | |
| BEVs | about *1.65 million | 16% |
| PHEVs | about *0.82 million | 7% |
| Total | 2,494,470 (up 31%) | 23% |
In hindsight, Europe registered over 2.6 million new passenger plug-in electric cars in FY 2022. It accounted for around 23% of the overall volume.
Tesla Model Y leads
As expected, the Tesla Model Y led the European monthly sales ranking with 11,583 registrations in October. Its sibling, the Tesla Model 3, landed fourth spot with sales of 7,149 units.
Year to date, the American electric crossover defended its dominant position with sales of 220,310 units. Meanwhile, the Tesla Model 3 advanced to the second spot with 73,385 units. Below are the top 10 plug-in car models in terms of registration in Europe:
Monthly
| Rankings | Models | Sales |
| 1 | Tesla Model Y | 11,583 |
| 2 | Skoda Enyaq iV | 8,463 |
| 3 | Audi Q4 e-tron | 7,764 |
| 4 | Tesla Model 3 | 7,149 |
| 5 | MG 4 | 6,951 |
| 6 | Dacia Spring | 6,150 |
| 7 | Volvo XC40 | 5,884 (5,150 BEVs + 734 PHEVs) |
| 8 | BMW i4 | 5,311 |
| 9 | Volkswagen ID.4 | 5,193 |
| 10 | Fiat 500 electric | 5,081 |
YTD
| Rankings | Models | Sales |
| 1 | Tesla Model Y | 220,310 |
| 2 | Tesla Model 3 | 73,385 |
| 3 | Volkswagen ID.4 | 69,833 |
| 4 | Volvo XC40 | 64,270 (42,450 BEVs + 21,820 PHEVs) |
| 5 | Skoda Enyaq iV | 61,473 |
| 6 | MG 4 | 58,983 |
| 7 | Audi Q4 e-tron | 56,892 |
| 8 | Volkswagen ID.3 | 54,622 |
| 9 | Fiat 500 electric | 54,425 |
| 10 | Dacia Spring | 49,954 |
Top brands – YTD
Tesla’s unprecedented sales enabled it to maintain its lead against all brands from January to October period. The American electric automaker accounted for 12.1% of the plug-in car segment.
German automakers BMW (8.2%), Volkswagen (8.2%), Mercedes-Benz (7.7%) and Audi (5.6%) completed the top five. Swedish brand Volvo tied with Audi for the fifth spot with a share of 5.6.
| Rankings | Brands | Share |
| 1 | Tesla | 12.1% |
| 2 | BMW | 8.2% |
| 3 | Volkswagen | 8.2% |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz | 7.7% |
| 5 | Audi | 5.6% |
| 5 | Volvo | 5.6% |
Top auto groups – YTD
German legacy automaker Volkswagen Group dominated the automotive group’s rankings with a share of 20.6%. Of that total, the VW brand accounted for 8.2%. Multinational automaker Stellantis followed with a 13.9% share. Tesla ranked third with a share of 12.1%.
| Rankings | Auto Group | Share |
| 1 | Volkswagen Group | 20.6% share (Volkswagen brand at 8.2%) |
| 2 | Stellantis | 13.9% |
| 3 | Tesla | 12.1% |
| 4 | BMW Group | 9.8% share (BMW brand at 8.2%) |
| 5 | Hyundai Motor Group | 8.4% |
| 6 | Mercedes-Benz Group | 8.3% (Mercedes-Benz brand at 7.7%) |
| 7 | Geely–Volvo | 8.0% |
Europre’s registration data for the month and YTD demonstrate Tesla’s strong presence in the market despite being a foreign brand. It shows European customers’ major preference for Tesla Model Y and 3 over other models from local brands. Moreover, the growth of the plug-in car segment also delivers a positive sign for the region’s shift to more sustainable mobility. The EU aims to ban new fossil fuel car sales by 2035 as it seeks to cut CO2 emissions from the transportation sector.
