Austria’s transition to battery‑electric cars accelerated again this autumn, with official and industry figures showing record BEV volumes and a shifting podium of best‑sellers that matters for drivers, dealers and suppliers in both Austria and neighbouring Germany.
Record BEV month and fast Chinese gains
Statistik Austria reports that September 2026 saw 9,723 new battery‑electric passenger cars — a 80.6% rise on September 2025 — equal to a 33.6% share of new passenger‑car registrations that month. The agency notes part of the surge is explained by new models that were not on the market a year earlier.
Industry reporting and provisional October counts show the momentum carried into late October: Austria had recorded 63,172 BEV registrations by the end of September (January–September) — already more than in all of 2025 — and early provisional brand counts for 1–20 October point to strong gains for Chinese marques (BYD: 928 in the first 20 days of October; Leapmotor: 444).
Which models are selling?
Model‑level data for September place Tesla’s Model Y clearly in front: 946 Model Y units were newly registered in Austria in September, making it the month’s single most‑registered BEV model. Škoda’s Enyaq and Elroq follow in the country rankings, while BYD’s Atto (the data source groups BYD models at brand level) was among the top five. Statistik Austria’s monthly breakdown underpins these results.
At the brand level, BMW, Škoda, Tesla, BYD and Volkswagen account for the largest shares of pure‑EV registrations in the January–September period, with BMW alone representing 10.1% of BEV new registrations in that span.
