The European continent is teeming with EVs, and it’s never been easier to own and charge one. But everything is under China's shadow.

More people are choosing to go electric in Europe—not necessarily because they care about the environment, but because it makes sense to do so, and it brings little compromise. Even in 2025, a year marked by the pullback of incentives and slower demand growth, the continent's EV sales rose.

But countless challenges lie ahead for the likes of Volkswagen, BMW, Renault and beyond. From Chinese competition to a charging arms race, here's what defined Europe's 2025 in the electric vehicle world—and what to expect in 2026 and beyond.

Charging Got Way Easier

The expansion of public charging networks has made it remarkably easy to find an available, working charger. It's so much easier to charge today than it was even three years ago and the numbers back this up.

The European Commission reports that there are now more than 1 million chargers in the European Union. The statistic doesn't include Switzerland and Norway, which aren't part of the EU, but they do have expansive public and private charging networks.

EAFO data reveals that the outright leader is the Netherlands, which has almost 200,000 public chargers, more per capita than any other country in Europe, although most of them are low-power AC chargers. Norway, the world EV adoption leader, has around 30,000 stalls (around a third of which are DC fast chargers).

When I drove EVs across Europe earlier this year, I found that it wasn’t much more difficult than driving a combustion car, especially if you drive an 800-volt EV that only requires 20 minutes for an 80% top-up.

Europe’s EV Incentive Pullback

Even though many European countries shrunk or eliminated EV incentives, subsidies and tax advantages, Europeans still bought 33% more plug-in vehicles through November of this year compared to 2024, according to a report published by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which includes the European Union, Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom.

The report estimates sales growth for plug-in vehicles in China at 19%, equating to over 11.6 million vehicles, compared with Europe’s 3.8 million.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which covers only the European Union, reported that pure electric vehicles accounted for 16.9% of all new vehicle purchases in the EU from January through November, up from 13.4% during the same period in 2024. That’s 1.66 million new EVs, mainly concentrated in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.