site.btaNew Car Registrations in EU Down 7.3% Y/Y in June, Up 12.4% in Bulgaria

In the first half of 2025, new car registrations in the European Union were down 1.9% compared to the same period last year. For Bulgaria, a 4.6% increase was reported for the same period, according to BTA calculations based on the latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) published on Thursday on its website.

The decline in the EU is indicative of the challenging global economic environment for carmakers, the association explained.

Data on Bulgaria

For the sixth month of the year, Bulgaria reported a 12.4% increase in new car sales, while the EU as a whole reported a 7.3% decline.

The growth in Bulgaria in June was the second in a row, after May also saw an increase of 19.7% year-on-year. Previously, in April, a drop of 4.6% in new car registrations was recorded in the country. 

In June, 4,614 new cars were registered in Bulgaria compared to 4,104 in the same month in 2024.

The share of new cars with petrol engines was the highest compared to all new cars registered in Bulgaria in June this year - 81.4%. The share of new cars with diesel engines in Bulgaria was 8.6%. This was followed by new battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which accounted for 5.2%. The share of newly registered hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) was lower at 3.4%, as was the share of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) at 1.2%.

New registrations of plug-in hybrid cars in June registered the highest annual growth in Bulgaria - by 72.7% to 57 units. New hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) followed with an annual growth in the country of 59%, corresponding to 159 cars. This is followed by those powered entirely by batteries (BEVs), which grew by 48.8%, corresponding to 241 EVs. New registrations of petrol-powered vehicles were down 11.9% or 3,359 vehicles in June. Diesel-powered cars saw an annual decline in June of 11.3% or 399 cars. In May, the year-on-year decline in this category was much more modest at 1.6%.

Overall, 24,083 new cars were sold in Bulgaria in the first half of the year, which corresponds to an annual growth of 4.6% compared to the 23,033 new cars sold a year earlier.

EU data

In the first half of 2025, sales of new all-battery electric vehicles reached 869,271 units, accounting for 15.6% of the EU market share. Three of the four largest EU markets, accounting for more than 60% of battery car registrations, are growing: Germany (+35.1%), Belgium (+19.5%) and the Netherlands (+6.1%). This contrasts with France, which saw a decline of 6.4%.

Data from the first half of 2025 also shows that new registrations of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) in the EU have increased to 1,942,762 units, driven by growth in the four largest markets: France (+34.1%), Spain (+32.8%), Italy (+10%) and Germany (+9.9%). Hybrid-electric models now account for 34.8% of the total EU market share.

In the first half of 2025, 469,410 new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were sold in the EU. This is due to volume increases for key markets such as Germany (+55.1%) and Spain (+82.5%), but also for Italy (+56.3%). As a result, they now account for 8.4% of total car registrations in the EU, compared to 6.9% in June 2024.

By the end of June 2025, registrations of new petrol cars had fallen by 21.2%, with all major markets experiencing declines. The largest decline was recorded in France at 33.7%, followed by Germany (-27.8%), Italy (-17.2%) and Spain (-13.4%).

With 1,585,357 new cars registered so far, the market share of petrol cars fell from 35.4% to 28.4%. Similarly, the market for diesel cars has declined by 28.1%, resulting in a year-to-date share of 9.4% for diesel cars in June 2025. On a year-on-year basis, June 2025 saw a decline of 25.4% for petrol and 34.1% for diesel vehicles.