EU electric car sales overtook petrol and diesel combined in Q3

Battery-electric cars outsold petrol and diesel cars combined across the European Union in the third quarter, a first for the bloc. Buyers took home 710,580 full EVs against 655,540 pure combustion cars over the same period.

The figures come from Transport & Environment, the climate advocacy group and research firm that tracks European powertrain sales. Its data shows the shift is broad rather than confined to a handful of enthusiastic markets: 13 of the 27 EU member states posted their highest EV sales on record, and in ten of them battery-electric is now the best-selling powertrain type.

Where the growth is coming from

Norway remains the outlier at 97.9% EV market share, helped by tax treatment and incentives that make electric cars cheaper to buy. Sweden and the Netherlands also sit high for similar reasons.

France, Germany, Belgium, the UK, Portugal and Ireland have all pushed past 25% market share for new electric sales. Croatia is the laggard at 4.2%, but its EV sales are up 244% while pure combustion sales there have fallen 19%, so the direction of travel matches the rest of the bloc.

Product choice is doing much of the work. Chinese brands Leapmotor, Geely and BYD have arrived with budget models such as the Leapmotor B10 and BYD Dolphin Surf, while Renault, Stellantis, Hyundai, Kia and Volkswagen have launched affordable hatchbacks and crossovers with more planned. Europe's advantage over the US is largely one of selection: there are simply more low-cost electric models on showroom floors.

Hybrids are the next target

Hybrids still lead battery-electric cars, at 892,380 units in the third quarter, leaving a gap of roughly 180,000 sales. That is a narrow margin given the trajectory, and upcoming budget models such as the Citroën 2CV and Dacia Spring are aimed squarely at the value end of the market where hybrids currently hold sway.

When EVs will actually overtake hybrids has not been announced by T&E or anyone else, and no date has been put on it. The source material only notes the trend and the size of the current gap.

The milestone matters beyond bragging rights. When electric becomes the default choice in a market as large as the EU, it changes what manufacturers build, where they send their limited battery supply and how quickly charging infrastructure gets funded. It also puts pressure on brands that have leaned on hybrids as a compliance bridge.

What it does not tell us

The Q3 result covers the EU, not Europe as a whole, and the source figures are quarterly sales rather than a full-year tally. Pricing for the budget models named has not been disclosed in the material, and no Australian availability or pricing is implied by any of it.

The US comparison in the data is directional only: slower adoption there is attributed to weaker subsidies and a thinner choice of cheap models, without figures to quantify the gap.

What the fault does, and why drivers may not notice

Documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration describe analog gauges that can get stuck or swing erratically, producing a speed reading that does not match the truck's actual pace. No warning light comes on to tell the driver something is wrong, so the fault can go unnoticed until it is checked.

Trucks fitted with both a digital and an analog speedometer give owners a way to spot the problem themselves: the two displays may disagree. That matters because a wrong speed reading is not a cosmetic glitch. It feeds directly into how a driver judges braking distance, following gaps and speed limits, and a gauge that sticks at one figure is hardest to catch precisely when the driver is relying on it most.

Ford has not received any accident reports tied to the defect, and by September 16 the company had logged 18 warranty claims and 93 field reports connected to the issue.

Owners will hear from Ford before the fix exists

Notification letters go out by October 30, but the replacement part will not be ready until early December. Ford expects to tell owners when the remedy is available by December 11, and a dealer will then swap the instrument cluster at no cost.

That gap between the warning letter and the repair is the awkward part of this recall. Owners of affected trucks will be told their speedometer may be lying to them weeks before anything can be done about it, so the sensible approach in the interim is to lean on the digital readout where the truck has one and to treat the analog needle with suspicion.

Checking whether a specific truck is covered is not as simple as reading the VIN. The affected vehicles were not built in VIN order, so the practical routes are to wait for the owner notification, call Ford's hotline, or contact a Ford or Lincoln dealer.

A small F-150 share and a single F-750

The F-150's involvement is limited: 10,570 units from the 2026 model year, a fraction of the Super Duty total. One 2026 F-750 is also part of the recall.

Ford has not said which plants built the affected trucks or how the fault was traced to a specific batch of clusters, and no production halt has been announced. The recall documents also do not put a cost on the campaign.