European car sales drop in January as falling combustion engines outweigh EV gains

STORY: New car sales in Europe were down by over 2% in January.

A jump in fully electric and hybrid-electric car registrations in main markets was not enough to compensate for falling petrol and diesel sales.

Industry data showed on Tuesday (Feb 25) that overall sales in France, Italy, Germany and Britain were all down from last year.

Only Spain recorded year-on-year increase among the top selling nations.

The EU executive will present auto sector plans at the beginning of March following talks with automakers, unions and interest groups.

Carmakers are struggling to compete with Chinese rivals and bracing for U.S. tariffs.

They’ve urged the Commission to grant relief from potential fines resulting from CO2 car emission targets that came into effect in January.

Some automakers have increased the prices of petrol engine models to encourage EV adoption.

But the industry fears that customers will simply buy fewer cars.

January sales in the EU, Britain and the European Free Trade Area fell slightly below 1 million cars sold – the lowest volume since August.

Registrations at Volkswagen and Renault grew by 5.3% and 5.4% respectively, while they fell by 16% at Stellantis.

In the EU, sales fell by 2.6%, even as the registrations of battery electric and hybrid electric cars grew by 34% and 18.4% respectively.

U.S. President Donald Trump has raised tariffs on aluminum and steel and threatened a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as on all autos and semiconductors.