Europe’s carmakers are finally selling cheaper electric cars, and buyers are responding. Transport & Environment (T&E), a clean transport campaign group, estimates that sales of battery-electric cars starting below €25,000 will rise sevenfold in the European Union in 2026 compared with 2024.
The group ties the change to the EU’s carbon dioxide targets for cars. Between 2021 and 2024 the targets stayed roughly flat, and manufacturers had little reason to build affordable models, T&E said. That has shifted. Almost 40 new electric models reached the market in the first half of 2026, lifting the number of mass-market battery-electric models above 150. About 60 more are due by the end of the year, nearly four times the average of 15 launches a year recorded from 2021 to 2025. The count of electric models starting under €25,000 has doubled.
Sales at record levels
Data shows 1.64 million battery-electric cars were sold in the EU from January to August, up 45% on the same months a year earlier. In the second quarter, they took a 22% market share and outsold petrol-only cars over a full quarter for the first time. T&E expects every European automaker to meet the 2025 to 2027 targets.
Volkswagen’s new ID. Polo shows the appetite. It reportedly drew more than 40,000 orders and a waiting list of around ten months. “The issue was not the demand, but what they had to offer,” said Lucien Mathieu, cars director at T&E.
The oil shock factor
Fuel prices are adding to the pull. T&E calculated that the oil price shock has cost EU road users €53 billion. By mid-September, filling a 50-litre diesel tank cost about €30 more than before the Iran war, and a driver who had switched to an electric car when the crisis began would have saved around €350 in running costs.
T&E warns that watering down the 2030 target could cut the rollout of affordable models by nearly three-quarters. “The EU’s car targets are expanding consumer choice, bringing down the cost of going electric and giving European manufacturers a chance to compete in the global EV race,” Mathieu said.
Sources
- Sub-€25,000 EV Sales Set to Rise Sevenfold in 2026 – Battery-Tech Network
- EU EV Targets Drive Affordable Electric Cars and Record Sales
