Car market: Austria approaching 30 percent electric vehicle share

In Austria, 6,316 new electric cars hit the roads in August. This is slightly fewer than in July, but the share of electric vehicles among total registrations continues to rise steadily, now reaching 29 percent. So far this year, 25 percent of all new registrations were electric cars — meaning one in four new vehicles.

The latest figures from Statistik Austria show that the overall passenger car market in this Alpine country is stagnating: In August, the market grew by only a negligible 1.6 percent to 21,788 cars compared to the previous year. Pure electric vehicles performed particularly well within this mix, with a 46 percent increase to 6,316 units. This disproportionate growth results in a very high electric vehicle share of 29 percent in Austria. The previous month, July, also saw a high figure of 27.4 percent. For comparison, electric vehicles account for 25.2 percent of the market so far this year in Austria. Thus, the upward trend is undeniable.

In addition to the 6,316 new electric cars mentioned, 8,081 gasoline hybrids were registered in August (+5% year-on-year), accounting for 37.1% of the total market. There were also 765 diesel hybrids (-40% year-on-year; 3.5% market share). However, this type of propulsion system continues to lose ground steadily. As usual, the report from Statistik Austria does not specify how the hybrid figures are distributed among mild hybrids, full hybrids, and plug-in hybrids. Certain hybrid variants are actually more similar to conventional internal combustion engines than to electric cars. Statistik Austria defines the term “alternative drives” quite broadly, which is something that should be kept in mind.

On the contrary, traditionally powered passenger cars continue to see declining sales in Austria, as well as in many other European countries. Gasoline vehicles saw 4,873 new registrations in August (a -15% year-on-year decline; 22.4% market share). Diesel vehicles only reached 1,753 new registrations (8% market share), which is 29% below the figure from August 2025. In summary, Austria’s new car market is dominated by gasoline hybrids, gasoline vehicles, and electric cars, while diesel and diesel hybrids are becoming increasingly less popular.

Manuela Lenk, the director general for statistical affairs at Statistik Austria, commented on the trend as follows: “New car registrations continued to rise in August 2026 as well, but at a much slower pace than before. In June, new car registrations increased by 22.9% compared to the previous year, by 3.8% in July, and by 1.6% in August. Overall, 212,140 new cars have been registered in Austria since the start of the year, which is 12.0% more than in the first 8 months of the previous year. Two thirds of these cars have alternative propulsion systems, while the share of conventional internal combustion engines among newly registered vehicles has dropped to 33.6%.”

Statistik Austria has also updated its brand ranking for 2026: Among fully electric passenger cars, BMW remains slightly ahead with a share of 10.7%, followed by Skoda (9.9%), BYD (9.5%), VW (8.4%), and Tesla (8.2%). The statistics once again show that there is currently no clear leader in Austria, as five brands are closely matched in performance. Together, they account for just under half of the market.