Europe's EV Sales Hit Record September While North America Slides 44%

September brought a sharply split picture for the global electric vehicle market: Europe raced to an all-time monthly high while North America posted its steepest decline of the year. According to fresh figures from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, nearly 600,000 EVs were delivered across Europe in September — a 39% jump year over year — while North American volume tumbled 44% to roughly 130,000 units. Worldwide, 2.15 million plug-in vehicles changed hands, up 17% from August but 2% below the same month a year earlier.

• Europe’s record month: September’s regional total beat the previous June peak by 10%, with battery-electric models doing most of the work — BEV sales climbed 50% versus 16% for plug-in hybrids.
• Country-level surges: France rose 78% to nearly 80,000 units and Germany climbed 61% to 117,000, while the UK, Spain, Portugal and Finland all logged their best-ever monthly EV tallies. UK registrations got a seasonal lift from the September plate change, keeping EV share roughly flat at about 40%.
• The North American caveat: The 44% drop is measured against September 2025, the last month before the US federal $7,500 credit expired — a period of frantic buyer pull-forward. Year-to-date, North America is down 24% at 1.2 million units.
• China’s slowdown: At 1.11 million units, China remains the largest market by far, though sales fell 18% year over year, deepening August’s 11% decline. Plug-in hybrids are the weak spot, down 25% this year versus 6% for BEVs.
• The rest of the world accelerates: Markets outside China, Europe and North America grew 81% in September to about 310,000 units, reaching 2.3 million year-to-date — a 93% increase and nearly double North America’s total.

Why It Matters

Benchmark’s data manager Charles Lester cautioned against reading the North American percentage as a fresh demand collapse, noting that from the fourth quarter comparisons will be against the months immediately following the credit’s removal — when US sales fell sharply — so year-on-year figures should improve markedly. A smaller decline later this year, in other words, won’t automatically signal a recovery.

There’s a telling detail in China too: conventional gasoline car sales there dropped 43% to 534,000 units in September, so weaker EV numbers don’t reflect buyers switching back to combustion. Instead, Chinese manufacturers have held production steady and pushed more metal overseas, with new energy vehicle exports hitting a record 558,000 in September. That export route may narrow next year, however. A provisional EU–China arrangement would cap imports of Chinese-built BEVs and PHEVs at 350,000 units in 2027, rising 6% annually over the four-year deal, while Beijing plans to trim its export VAT rebate for new energy vehicles from 13% to 9% starting April 1, 2027. With growth tilting toward Europe and emerging markets, the geographic center of the EV story is visibly shifting.