Volkswagen ID.3 was the best-selling ELECTRIC car in Europe in October

The new electric Volkswagen ID.3 makes its mark in Europe, becoming the best-selling electric car in a difficult market.

New car registrations have been decimated this year in the wake of Covid, and sales/registrations of new cars across Europe was down by seven per cent in October compared to the same period in 2019.

But that decline is the smallest this year, and also show the shift in powertrains as buyers and makers alike shift towards electrification – whether that’s a BEV, plug-in hybrid, hybrid or mild hybrid – with vehicles featuring some form of electrification taking over a quarter of the market – more than diesel.

A lot of that is driven by mild hybrid – now almost a default option for many – but proper electric cars (BEVs) saw sales rise by 197 per cent on last year, and the big winner was the new Volkswagen ID.3.

The ID.3 racked up sales of 10,590, which may not be a huge number overall – it was actually the 29th best-selling car in Europe – but it was 700 more than the second place Renault Zoe and double the sales of the third placed Hyundai Kona Electric.

Unsurprisingly, it was Toyota which racked up top sales in the hybrid market with the top two places – and four in the top 10 – and the Mercedes A-Class and Volvo XC40 took the top two places in PHEV sales.