From January to March, the company led by Elon Musk sold 36,167 vehicles, compared to 65,774 units in the same period last year.

In March, Tesla sold 13,860 cars in the European Union, compared to 15,055 in the same month in 2024, which represents a decrease of 7.9% and contrasts with the average increase of 23.9% for electric cars in the same period.

The countries with the biggest increases in electric car sales in March were Latvia (+344%), Cyprus (140%) and Spain (68.9%), while Estonia (-29.3%) had the worst record, followed by France (-6.6%).

In the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2024, car registrations for all engine types in the single market fell by 1.9%.

EU car sales fall 1.9% in first quarter

Car sales in the European Union fell 1.9% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2024, but registrations of battery-electric cars rose 12% over the same period, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Thursday.

“This reflects a particularly challenging and unpredictable global economic context for automakers,” the association said in a statement, adding that in the comparison between March 2024 and March 2025, sales fell by 0.2%.

A record 412,997 electric cars in the first quarter of the year took battery-powered vehicles to 15.2% of the EU market share, up from 12% a year ago, although that level was “still far from expectations”, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said.

In March, electric car registrations increased by 17.1% and, among the main EU markets, there were strong increases in Spain (93%), Germany (+35.5%) and Italy (74.8%), while in France they decreased by 13.9%.

In annual terms, in the first quarter, sales of electric vehicles recorded a global increase of 23.9%, with significant increases in Spain (68.9%), Germany (38.9%), Italy (72.5%), Belgium (+29.9%) and the Netherlands (+7.9%), but a fall of 6.6% in France.

Plug-in hybrids saw their sales increase by 12.4% and non-plug-in hybrids by 23.9% in March, while in the first quarter as a whole, there were 1.1% more plug-in hybrids and 20.7% more non-plug-in hybrids.

Between January and March, annual growth in plug-in hybrids was led by France (+47.5%), Spain (+36.6%), Italy (+15.3%) and Germany (+10.5%).

The EU hybrid market share stood at 35.5% and the combined electric and hybrid vehicles reached a market share of 59.2% of new registrations in the EU in March 2025, up from 49.1% the previous year, ACEA said.

Cars with combustion engines (diesel and gasoline) saw their share fall in one year from 48.3% to 38.3%.

Between January and March, the number of gasoline car registrations fell by 20.6%, with falls in all major markets: France (-34.1%), Germany (-26.6%), Italy (-15.8%) and Spain (-9.5%), leaving the market share at 28.7%, compared to 35.5% a year earlier.

Diesel car registrations fell by 27.1%, now accounting for just 9.5% of the EU market.

Additionally, by March 2025, the annual change showed a 20.7% drop in gasoline car registrations and a 25.5% drop in diesel car registrations, ACEA said.