Data exposure: New energy vehicles bring more opportunities to tires

When it comes to the new energy tire market, the development of electric vehicles is indispensable. The development of electric vehicles in China has brought many opportunities to new energy tires. Just when domestic tire companies are enthusiastic, the new energy vehicle market is changing.

According to the latest data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the cumulative data in the first two months of 2025 showed that the number of new car registrations in the EU fell by 3% compared with the same period last year, and major automobile consumer countries were generally under pressure.

Among the four core markets, Italy (-6%), Germany (-4.6%) and France (-3.3%) all declined, and only Spain grew by 8.4% against the trend. Looking at the performance in February alone, the overall registration volume in the EU fell by 3.4% year-on-year, of which Germany (-6.4%) and Italy (-6.2%) became the main drag factors.

01 Pure electric market is advancing by leaps and bounds
Driven by the wave of energy transformation, the structure of the EU automobile market has changed significantly. As of February 2025, the market share of pure electric vehicles (BEV) has climbed to 15.2%, an increase of 3.7 percentage points from the same period last year (11.5%). Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) maintain their dominant position in the market with a market share of 35.2%, while the combined share of traditional fuel vehicles (gasoline + diesel) has shrunk to 38.8%, a year-on-year decrease of 9.7 percentage points.

The pure electric vehicle market continues to advance rapidly, with registrations reaching 255,489 in the first two months, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%. Among the four major markets in the EU, Germany (+41%), Belgium (+38%) and the Netherlands (+25%) all recorded double-digit growth, and these three markets together contributed 64% of the total registrations of pure electric vehicles in the EU. The French market saw a slight correction of 1.3%, becoming the only negative growth region among the major markets.

Hybrid electric vehicles continued their strong performance, with registrations increasing by 18.7% year-on-year to 594,059 in the first two months. Among them, the French market soared by 51.4%, Spain increased by 31.5%, and Italy and Germany also achieved steady growth of 10.4% and 9.8% respectively.

In contrast, the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) market has been cold, with registrations down 5% year-on-year to 124,947 units. The precipitous decline in key markets such as Belgium (-65.3%) and France (-49.3%) has caused the market share of this category to drop to 7.4%.

02 The traditional fuel vehicle market continues to shrink
The fuel vehicle camp is showing an accelerated decline. In the first two months, gasoline vehicle registrations fell sharply by 20.5%, and all major markets saw double-digit declines: France (-27.5%), Germany (-24.9%), Italy (-19%), and Spain (-13%). Currently, the market share of gasoline vehicles has fallen from 35.5% in the same period last year to 29.1%.

The diesel vehicle market has shrunk even more sharply, down 28% year-on-year, with a market share of only 9.7%, and sales in most member states have fallen by more than 20%. Vertical comparison shows that compared with the same period in 2024, the various power types in 2025 showed significant differentiation: pure electric vehicles (+23.7%) and hybrid vehicles (+19%) maintained growth resilience, plug-in hybrid models (-1.4%) showed signs of fatigue, and the fuel vehicle camp accelerated its decline (gasoline-22.4%, diesel-28.8%). This data confirms that the electrification transformation of the EU automobile market has entered an irreversible acceleration channel.

Compared with fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles have three core components (battery, motor, and electronic control), so different vehicles have different requirements for tires. The development of new energy vehicles also brings more opportunities to the tire market. Are you ready for the opportunity for tire companies to overtake on the curve?