What powers Europe’s used cars: eight markets compared

In August 2026, battery-electric cars made up 48% of new dealer listings in Denmark. That is more than any other powertrain in the country, and no other market comes close. The next highest is Sweden at 15%.

Source: National used-car listing data · dealer listings · n = 891,000 · Lens: flow (new listings per month) · August 2026 · Listings, not sales.

Everywhere else, combustion still sets the pace. Petrol leads the Netherlands (57%) and Germany (51%); diesel holds its strongest position in Austria (46%). Hybrids sit between the two, from 8% of listings in Denmark to 24% in Spain and the Netherlands.

How far apart the eight markets sit is worth stating plainly. Electric runs from 1.9% of listings in Italy to 48% in Denmark, a factor of 25. Diesel runs from 9% in the Netherlands to 46% in Austria, petrol from 29% in Denmark to 57% in the Netherlands. No powertrain holds a similar position in all eight. This is not one European used-car market but eight, each with its own balance.

Descriptive patterns in listing data. Movements may reflect market dynamics, mix shifts, seasonality or data artefacts; no causal claims are made.

• Listings, not sales. Figures show what dealers advertise, not what they sell. A listing is a seller’s decision to bring a car to market, which is an early signal of where sellers think demand is.
• Share is of new listings that month, not of total inventory. A share sounds like a statement about the state of the market; that is not what is measured here.
• The anchor month is a choice, not a date stamp. Figures describe the anchor month. Where a figure moves materially across the window, this report says so; and the more narrowly a figure is cut, the more it moves. A single model within a single brand in a single market rests on a few thousand listings and can shift several points between months; a whole market’s top ten rests on hundreds of thousands and barely moves.
• One source per market. Each market’s share is calculated against that market’s own listings. Because coverage differs between countries, levels are comparable as proportions but rest on slightly different underlying populations.
• One population per report. Each report is computed against its own population, chosen for the question that report asks. Where two reports describe the same market and the same month, their figures may still differ, and they are not designed to add up.
• Movement, not trend. Seasonal comparison needs a longer window than this report covers. Movement within the window is described; it is not read as direction.

Specific to this report:

• Hybrids are one group. Plug-in and conventional hybrids are reported together, so all eight markets are counted the same way. A market’s hybrid share covers both.
• “Other” is set aside. LPG, CNG, hydrogen and ethanol reach no more than 1.5% of listings in every market except Italy, where they reach 11%. They are omitted from the charts but remain in the denominator, so the shares still sum to 100.
• Light commercial vehicles are included and are counted alongside passenger cars. Van models are nationally concentrated, so each market carries a different share of them, and diesel figures are not comparable between markets at the level of a percentage point.
• Monthly volumes vary by around 38 per cent across the window. Movements in counts are not interpreted here.