According to the Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2025-2026/Q4 2025 Report from the Economic Committee of the European Steel Association (EUROFER), in the second quarter of 2025 automotive output in the EU dropped by 4.3 percent year on year, compared to the 11.4 percent decrease in the previous quarter.
Ongoing supply chain bottlenecks leading to order delays, disruptions linked to geopolitical tensions, weak consumer sentiment and overall economic uncertainty continued to suppress EU car demand through the first half of 2025. However, the most recent data for September 2025 indicated that passenger car sales in the EU have finally begun to pick up. By September, year-to-date registrations were 0.9 percent higher than during the same period in the previous year, marking the third month in a row of positive growth.
Part of this improvement can be attributed to the introduction of new vehicle models, with September alone recording a strong 10 percent rise in sales. Battery-electric vehicles accounted for 16.1 percent of total registrations in the first nine months of the year, although this share still falls short of the trajectory needed to meet the 2035 phase-out of petrol car sales.
The forecast for 2025 has been revised as a 3.8 percent decline, compared to the earlier expectations of 4.2 percent contraction.