Average carbon dioxide emissions from new cars and vans registered across Europe fell significantly in 2025, according to a European Environment Agency assessment. The figures cover the European Union, Norway and Iceland, and show a measurable shift in the composition of new vehicle registrations rather than a claim about every vehicle already on the road.
Cars recorded a clear year-on-year decline
The EEA recorded 10.8 million new passenger cars in 2025, almost unchanged from the 10.7 million registered in 2024. Average reported emissions fell to 96.7 grams of CO2 per kilometre, down from 106.7 grams per kilometre a year earlier. That represents a reduction of 10 grams per kilometre across the newly registered fleet.
The agency links the decline mainly to the rising share of battery-electric vehicles. Fully electric cars accounted for 18.9% of new registrations in 2025, compared with 14.4% in 2024. Plug-in hybrids represented a further 9.7%, up from 7.1% the previous year.
The national picture was uneven. The highest reported shares of fully electric cars were in Norway, at 96%, followed by Denmark at 69% and Iceland at 43%. These figures show how quickly the mix of new vehicles can change in some markets, while the overall European result still combines countries with very different levels of electric-vehicle uptake.
Vans also became less carbon-intensive
The EEA recorded 1.2 million new vans in 2025 across the same reporting area, 9% fewer than in 2024. Their average reported emissions fell to 172.1 grams of CO2 per kilometre, compared with 184.9 grams per kilometre the year before.
Electric vans made up 10.3% of new van registrations, rising from 6.2% in 2024. Plug-in hybrids accounted for 1.7%, compared with 0.3% a year earlier. The strongest reported shares of fully electric vans were in the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark.
The van data matter because commercial vehicles are used intensively and are closely tied to freight, deliveries and service work. The EEA figures do not estimate the total emissions of all road transport, but they do show how the emissions profile of newly added vehicles is changing.
Why the figures are still provisional
The data are based on information supplied by countries under the European vehicle monitoring framework and measured using the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure, or WLTP. The EEA has published the results as provisional because manufacturers can still review the records and request corrections to factual errors before final datasets are issued.
That qualification is important when interpreting the headline decline. The assessment describes the average certified emissions of newly registered vehicles in the reporting system. It is not a complete account of lifecycle emissions, electricity generation, fuel production or the emissions from the existing vehicle fleet. Nor does it mean that all models, journeys or driving conditions produce the same result.
The EEA also notes that manufacturer-specific emissions targets apply over the three-year period from 2025 to 2027 rather than separately in each calendar year. The 2025 figures therefore mark the first year of a regulatory period, not a standalone verdict on whether every manufacturer has met an annual target.
A transition visible in the registration data
Even with those limits, the results provide a useful snapshot of a transport transition that is already visible in official registration data. New-car volumes remained broadly stable while average certified emissions fell, and the share of battery-electric vehicles increased in both passenger cars and vans.
The next test will be whether this pattern continues across the full 2025–2027 period and whether the changes in new registrations translate into lower emissions from the wider road fleet as older vehicles are replaced. The EEA's forthcoming final datasets will also help confirm whether the provisional numbers change after manufacturer review.
For now, the agency's report supports a precise conclusion: newly registered cars and vans in the EU, Norway and Iceland were, on average, less carbon-intensive in 2025 than in 2024, with the strongest shift associated with the growing presence of fully electric vehicles.
