Top 10 electric cars in Europe today

The top 10 electric cars includes a broader choice of vehicles than ever before.

They've been around for a century and have yet to become the norm, but electric cars are growing in popularity like never before. Annual sales in Europe topped 67,000 in 2014 - up from just 700 in 2010. To put this phenomenal increase into context, electric cars still account for only one in 200 cars sold in Europe, but the EVs on offer today are better than ever. Cars like the Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and Tesla Model S are expensive compared to their internal combustion engine equivalents, but there is no doubting their build quality and road handling.

As well as build quality, most types of car are now available with an electric drive train. When you lump plug-in hybrids in with pure electric vehicles, you can see that the top sellers range from SUVs like the Mitsubishi Outlander to high-performance sports cars from Tesla. The Nissan Leaf the best-selling battery electric car – narrowly beating the Renault Zoe by only twenty sales.

Ford and Fiat remain notably absent from the league table with an electric version of the Focus launching too late to be included in 2014 sales figures. The number of new players in the electric vehicle market slowed last year. Electric versions of the Golf and Audi A3 will go up against the Leaf and the new BMW i8 luxury sports car will rival the Tesla Model S at the really expensive end of the market. Read the full report as compiled by T&E

Top 10 electric cars

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