Europe's leaders in EV adoption

May 22 | 2024

A recent study by electronic registration portal Vignettecroatia.com has shown that Norway has come out top of a list of countries with the highest number of electric vehicles when compared with its overall population.

EV adoption in EuropeGermany and the UK have the most electric vehicles registered by number.

The latest 2022 data from Eurostat shows that Norway is leading the way for electric vehicle use in Europe, with a whopping 20.12% of all vehicles being electric. As of the latest 2022 data, there are 3,018,728 registered vehicles in the country, of which 607,516 are electric-powered.

Germany and the UK have 1,013,009 and 620,632 electric vehicles registered, that’s 2.08% and 1.93% respectively putting them ninth and tenth on the list. Denmark comes second, with 4.02% of all vehicles being electric in the country. Sweden is third with 3.97%, the Netherlands fourth with 3.7% and Luxembourg, one of Europe’s smallest countries, fifth.

The European countries with the highest percentage of electric vehicles

Rank

Country

  Total registered vehicles  
2022

  Total registered electric vehicles  
2022

  Percentage of electric  
vehicles

1

Norway

3,018,728

607,516

20.12%

2

Denmark

2,801,076

112,674

4.02%

3

Sweden

4,979,761

197,709

3.97%

4

Netherlands

8,917,107

330,113

3.70%

5

Luxembourg

444,818

13,909

3.13%

6

Liechtenstein

30,659

950

3.10%

7

Switzerland

4,812,896

110,788

2.30%

8

Austria

5,150,890

110,225

2.14%

9

Germany

48,763,036

1,013,009

2.08%

10

United Kingdom

32,169,932

620,632

1.93%

Commenting on the findings, Luka Stojčević, a spokesperson for Vignettecroatia.com, said: “While electric cars are more common and affordable than ever, they still are an expensive purchase for a lot of Europeans. Even some of Europe’s highest income countries, as seen in this list, still see electric vehicles as a rarity compared to other fuel types.  However, as technology improves and overall production becomes cheaper, we can expect this list to shuffle around as more countries buy into the market.”