The energy crisis reorients European consumer preferences in the automotive sector. Hybrid and electric boom, which however continues to fail to convince in Italy.
The energy crisis is having increasingly profound impacts in Europe, even reorienting consumer preferences. This is the case of the automotive sector, which in recent months has seen a real electric boom.
Peak in registrations
Registrations of 100% electric cars in Europe exploded in 2026. A disruptive growth almost exclusively due to the Middle Eastern war, and the resulting crisis in prices at the pump.
The data published today by shows the radical change in European consumer preferences ACEA (the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers).
In the first eight months of the year, 1,641,333 new battery electric cars were registered, with an increase of 44.9% from the beginning of the year, and a jump of 62.7% in the month of August alone, reaching 196,486 units.
And be careful, because we are not facing a sales crisis, the official data from the association shows that the New car registrations in the European Union have grown by 5.3% since the beginning of the year. It is therefore exclusively a reorientation of preferences.
Boom in Germany and France
Two of the four main EU markets recorded strong growth. We are talking about France, with an astronomical +74.2% of electric vehicle registrations in August and Germany (+53.1%).
In these two countries, 100% electric cars now represent a considerable share of overall new registrations. Let’s talk about 29% in France and the 26% of the total of cars sold in Germany.
In Italy and Spain 100% electric is not convincing
In Southern Europe, however, electric continues to be less than convincing. In Italy and Spain the penetration of 100% electric cars remains in the single digitsor slightly more (8% in Italy, 10% in Spain).
On the other hand, however, both countries have recorded a real boom in hybrid cars (HEV)with growth exceeding 20% in the first eight months of this year.
Hybrid on the rise
Looking at the overall January-August 2026 data, it is clear that the engine preferred by European consumers (including Italian ones) is the hybrid (36.6% of registrations).
The engines follow gas and, precisely, the electricboth tied for second place with the 21.7% of new registrations. In third place we find the plug-in hybrid (10%) and only in the fourth the Diesel (7.3%).
Together, exclusively internal combustion engines (without any form of hybrid electrification) barely represent the 30% of new cars sold in Europeleaving the remaining 70% to electrified or partially electrified engines.
Petrol and diesel in a nosedive
Finally, from the published data it can be deduced that the sales of cars with traditional internal combustion engines (petrol and diesel) are suffering a strong and constant decline throughout the European Unionwith classic engines recording double-digit contractions.
In August, registrations of petrol or diesel cars in the EU are fell by around 23.5% compared to the same month of the previous year. Among the large markets, the France recorded the heaviest decline with a collapse of 35.8%.
The Middle Eastern crisis is therefore succeeding where incentives and bans had only partially worked, reorienting the European automotive market.
