What ACEA counted
ACEA tracks passenger-car registrations across the EU, the EFTA countries and the UK. Kia's 377,078 registrations over eight months compare with a market that grew 5.8% in the same period. Kia's share reached 4.1%, ninth overall.
The gap between those two growth rates is worth spelling out. Nine per cent on top of last year's figure means the brand added roughly 31,000 registrations year on year, about half again as fast as the market it sells into.
Electric cars moved faster still. Kia's EV registrations rose 58% year on year, and the brand now holds 4.8% of Europe's electric car market, in seventh place.
Where the growth came from
France and Germany did most of the work: registrations there rose 120% and 112%. The UK added 66%, Spain 60% and Italy 41%, all measured against the same eight months of 2025.
The EV3 stayed among Kia's best-selling electric models, while newer arrivals, the EV2, EV4 and EV5, brought in extra volume. The electric range now runs from the EV2 through the EV3, EV4, EV5, EV6 and EV9 to the PV5 van. Kia Europe's chief operating officer, Sjoerd Knipping, attributes the result to "one of the broadest and most advanced electrified line-ups in Europe."
Prices in Germany and the UK
Kia launched the entry-level EV2 earlier this year. It starts at €26,600 in Germany and £22,245 in the UK. Electrek published dollar equivalents next to both figures, $30,500 and $32,500. Convert the two through those numbers and the UK list price comes out roughly €1,700 above the German one, before any difference in equipment.
That price gap is one reason a Czech or Austrian buyer may look at a German dealer first. Entry-level electric cars are where the competition is toughest. Chinese brands keep pushing into Europe on price, and their September sales at home show how much volume they can build before export even starts.
Production in Slovakia
Kia builds the EV2 and the EV4 at its plant in Slovakia. Cars assembled inside the EU avoid the import duties that apply to electric vehicles shipped from China, and they support the European suppliers and battery makers that feed those lines.
Regulation pulls the same direction. EU fleet rules require carmakers to bring average CO2 emissions down to 93.6 g/km over 2025 to 2029, to 49.5 g/km from 2030 and to zero from 2035. Every low-emission car a brand sells in Europe lowers its average. Our earlier report on European battery cell capacity covers where the packs for those cars are meant to come from.
What a Kia EV costs to run
Charging decides the household budget more than the showroom price does. The same car can cost two or three times as much per kilometre on a motorway fast charger as on a home wallbox, and prices differ sharply between countries.
Our charging cost calculator lets you enter your own kWh price and annual mileage. The Supercharger database lists 483 locations with prices, and the cheapest are ranked separately on the cheapest-charging page. Networks keep consolidating too. In Switzerland, Joya has bundled four providers into a 7,500-point charging network.
What to check before signing
Three things decide whether a Kia EV suits a family.
Space. The EV2 is a small car, so two child seats plus a pram will be tight. Take your own seats and your own holiday luggage to the dealer. The EV3 and EV5 sit a class higher, the EV9 higher again.
Winter range. WLTP figures look optimistic in the cold, as they do for every brand. The real-world range tool, built on Bjørn Nyland's tests, gives a more conservative number for planning a winter trip.
Incentives and delivery. Purchase subsidies, company-car tax rules and registration fees differ by country and have changed repeatedly in the past three years. Check what applies where the car will be registered, not where you read about it.
Kia's full model list and prices sit in our EV catalog.
The figures behind this story cover January to August 2026 and count registrations, not orders. The number a buyer can act on today is at the bottom of the price list: €26,600 in Germany and £22,245 in the UK, with the UK figure working out about €1,700 higher once both are converted through the dollar prices in the report.
Source: https://electrek.co/2026/10/02/kia-europes-fastest-growing-top-10-brand-ev-sales-surge-58/