Sales of sub-€25,000 electric car models set to rise sevenfold

Transport & Environment, a Brussels clean-transport group, published its EV progress report on October 5, 2026. It projects that sales of electric models starting below €25,000 will rise by a factor of seven in 2026 compared with 2024. It expects a further 34% growth in 2027, which would bring sales close to ten times the 2024 level. By the end of 2026, 16 such models should be on sale, double the previous year, and four of them below €20,000. Almost 40 new electric models launched in the first half of 2026. Battery-electric cars outsold pure petrol cars across a full quarter for the first time in Q2 2026, with a 22% share. T&E warns that weakening the 2030-35 targets would halt the ramp-up of small affordable EVs. The link to AI is indirect. The report shows regulation-set targets reshaping a market's supply and prices within a few years, a pattern AI founders may see as compute, energy and safety rules develop.