Europe is set for a resurgence in electric vehicle sales this year with carmakers delivering more than 160 models to the market, but executives warn that profits may fall further because of regulatory costs and discounting.
Growth in EV sales across key European markets ground to a halt last year as governments cut back their subsidies and companies held back from new EV models until 2025 in anticipation of the continent’s stricter new emissions rules.
Matthias Schmidt, an independent car analyst, forecast that 2025 EV sales in western Europe, including the UK, would jump 40 per cent to 2.7mn vehicles, as carmakers rushed to meet CO₂ targets. He predicted the share of battery-run cars to break out of the 15-17 per cent range, to 22 per cent of the total market this year. “We certainly expect the market to rebound in 2025 due to the regulatory push from the EU,” he said.