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Fully Electric Cars Took 44.9 Percent of Portugal's New-Car Market in October, as Registrations for the Year Passed 241,000

Battery electric cars made up 44.9 percent of new passenger cars registered in Portugal in October, ACAP figures show, down slightly from September's record. Total registrations rose 2.4 percent in the month and 9.9 percent for the year, to 241,293.

The Portugal Brief 2 min read

Written in English, with the help of AI tools, from the Portuguese sources named in this story. How we work

Fully Electric Cars Took 44.9 Percent of Portugal's New-Car Market in October, as Registrations for the Year Passed 241,000
Photo: Resende13, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Fully electric cars made up 44.9 percent of the new passenger cars registered in Portugal in October, according to figures published on 2 November by ACAP, the Portuguese car trade association. That is a little below September's record 47.7 percent, but battery electric registrations were still 61.4 percent higher than in October 2025, while plug-in hybrids and conventional hybrids both fell.

Across all vehicle types, 20,367 new vehicles were registered in October, 2.4 percent more than a year earlier. From January to October the total reached 241,293, up 9.9 percent on the same period of 2025. ACAP's figures are based on registration data from the tax authority (AT).

October by vehicle type

  • Passenger cars: 16,595, up 2.8 percent. Year to date, 205,507, up 9.5 percent.
  • Light commercial vehicles (vans and pick-ups up to 3,500 kg): 3,182, up 20.4 percent. Year to date, 28,315, up 10.4 percent.
  • Heavy vehicles (lorries and buses): 590, down 46.6 percent on October 2025. Year to date, 7,471, still up 19.6 percent.

Electric and hybrid cars

ACAP's separate release on electrified vehicles breaks the October passenger-car market down by power source:

  • Battery electric (BEV): 7,452 cars, 44.9 percent of the market, up 61.4 percent.
  • Plug-in hybrids (PHEV): 2,620, 15.8 percent, down 19.2 percent.
  • Conventional hybrids (HEV): 2,761, 16.6 percent, down 9.3 percent.

Together these electrified cars accounted for 12,833 registrations, or 77.3 percent of October's market. The remaining 3,762 cars, about 22.7 percent, ran on petrol, diesel or gas.

Over the first ten months, 62,178 new fully electric cars were registered, 50.5 percent more than a year earlier and 30.3 percent of the passenger-car market. Petrol cars held 19.1 percent of the year-to-date market and diesel just 3.4 percent, according to ACAP's chart.

The shift is also showing in vans. Electric light commercial vehicles registered in October rose 172.6 percent to 766, almost a quarter (24.1 percent) of the new-van market.

What it means for you

Electric cars are no longer a niche purchase in Portugal: in October almost one new car in two was fully electric. For anyone buying, that means a wider choice of models and, over time, a larger second-hand market for electric cars.

State help to buy one is limited, though. The current Fundo Ambiental incentive (the state environment fund's "Mobilidade Verde" scheme) offered 1,375 grants of 4,000 euros for private buyers of electric cars costing up to 38,500 euros (55,000 euros for cars with more than five seats), on condition that an old car was scrapped. Applications ran from 11 June to 27 July 2026. Approved applicants have three months from their approval email to accept the terms and submit the payment request, or they lose the grant.

The government has said it plans a larger scheme for 2027, with up to 80 percent support for lower-income households, but no rules have been published yet. We reported on those plans last week. For September's figures, when Tesla alone took one sale in seven, see our earlier report.

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