By Alessandro Parodi

March 24 (Reuters) – New car sales in Europe rose in February after falling in January, while sustained demand for electric ‌vehicles helped Elon Musk’s all-electric brand Tesla resume growth for the ‌first time since December 2024, official data showed on Tuesday.

Overall car registrations, a proxy for ​sales, in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association were up 1.7% to 979,321 vehicles sold in the month, according to the European auto lobby ACEA.

Two-thirds of those were electrified, either battery-electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid.

The ‌EU and Britain are walking ⁠back some regulations aimed at reducing CO2 emissions after pressure from domestic carmakers who say they are struggling to ⁠turn a profit on EV sales while fending off competition from Chinese rivals.

But battery-electric and plug-in hybrid sales have been steadily on the rise in Europe thanks ​to new, ​cheaper models coming into the market ​and national policies which encourage EV ‌adoption.

Environmental groups warn that the repositioning of some petrol models as “mild hybrids” has also contributed to growing EV sales, while only modestly lowering emissions.

TESLA EDGES UP, CLOSE TO BYD

Tesla’s February registrations were up 11.8% year-on-year in February, reversing a thirteen-month negative streak, the ACEA data showed.

They were marginally lower than ‌those of its Chinese competitor BYD, whose ​sales more than doubled from the same month ​of 2025. Both brands had ​a market share of 1.8% in the month.

Sales of ‌top domestic carmakers Volkswagen and Stellantis rose ​by 2.2% and ​9.5%, respectively, while Renault’s fell by 14.3%.

In the EU, total car sales rose 1.4% to 865,437 vehicles.

Registrations of battery electric, plug-in hybrid and ​hybrid electric cars were ‌up 20.6%, 32.1% and 10.1%, respectively, to account collectively for 67% ​of the bloc’s registrations, up from 58.5% in February 2025.

(Reporting by ​Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Jan Harvey)