September's electric-car shares in France and Germany, and the 2035 proposal beside them

France's September battery-electric share was 41.7 percent of new passenger cars, and Germany's federal motor authority put the German share at 34.5 percent. A 34.6 percent German figure appears in a separate European compilation, and in an Automotive World brief that cites it. Reuters and Euronews report that France and Germany want the EU's 2035 car target reset to a 90 percent CO2 cut without offsets. The short joint statement does not print that percentage. None of these pages is a new EU law.

France and Germany, from the national releases

The AAA DATA table dated 1 October 2026, hosted by the French carmakers' committee, counts 65,243 electric passenger cars in September, a 41.7 percent share, up 107.5 percent, in a market of 156,629 cars, up 11.6 percent. For the first nine months it counts 387,342 electric cars, a 31.4 percent share, up 79.1 percent. Non-rechargeable hybrids were 36.6 percent of September and plug-in hybrids 6.4 percent. Petrol was 10.5 percent and diesel 1.5 percent.

AAA DATA's press release the same day uses those 65,243 cars and rounds the share to 42 percent. It says hybrids of all types still led, at 43 percent and 67,349 cars. Marie-Laure Nivot, its head of automotive market analysis, says: "Septembre 2026 confirme la montée en puissance des voitures neuves électriques : leur part de marché atteint 42 %, au coude-à-coude avec les hybrides." The 41.7 is the table. The 42 is the release's rounding of the same month.

The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt release of 5 October says 256,774 passenger cars were registered in September, up 9.0 percent. Battery-electric cars were 88,599, a 34.5 percent share, which the office calls more than a third. Hybrids were a larger slice: 98,871 cars, 38.5 percent, including 27,681 plug-in hybrids at 10.8 percent. Petrol was 17.4 percent and diesel 9.0 percent. Average CO2 of the new cars was 82.7 grams per kilometre, down 19.6 percent. The German figure in this article is 34.5 percent, because that is the number the registering office printed.

The 34.6 percent figure

Automotive World's brief of 22 October says the edition looks at Europe's record September electric-vehicle sales, "including shares of 41.7% in France and 34.6% in Germany," and at whether those sales weaken the case for softening the 2035 target. That is the outlet's framing of its brief.

The compilation behind that pairing is the September bulletin from E-Mobility Europe and New AutoMotive. The PDF prints no publication day, so the source date here is 23 October 2026, when the file was opened. It says 300,202 electric cars joined 17 markets, 70 percent more than in September 2025, and that battery-electric cars were 32.6 percent of September registrations in those markets, against a 24.7 percent year-to-date average. The table lists France at 65,243 and 41.7 percent, in line with the French unit count, and Germany at 88,724 and 34.6 percent. That is 125 cars, and a tenth of a point, apart from the KBA. The bulletin says the series comes from the European Alternative Fuels Observatory and FIER Automotive, plus national sources, for 17 markets it puts at about 90 percent of the EU and EFTA combined.

It says France and Germany were more than half of its September electric-car total. The same table shows the spread around that average: Norway 98.8 percent, Denmark 88.8 percent, Italy 7.6 percent, and Poland 6.2 percent. Chris Heron, secretary general of E-Mobility Europe, says the market "keeps accelerating beyond expectations, even as France and Germany agree to weaken the EU's 2035 CO2 framework."

The 90 percent proposal, and the statement that omits it

The joint statement, dated 16 October and updated on the French foreign ministry page on 19 October, says France and Germany agreed a common approach. They want to transform the industry, keep their climate ambition, and have future cars built in Europe. They say the course is still significant CO2 cuts plus a stronger ability to develop and build the next generation of electric vehicles. They propose a decarbonisation path with regulatory flexibility, and incentives for investment, research, European production, and supply chains. They say they will work with partners toward an agreement. The statement does not say 90 percent, 100 percent, or anything about offsets.

Reuters on 16 October reports a deal to soften proposed EU car-emissions rules. It says the Commission last year proposed a 90 percent cut from 2021 levels by 2035, with the remaining 10 percent offset by steps such as low-carbon steel and alternative fuels, and that the Franco-German plan would set 2035 at 90 percent without those extra compensatory measures. Reuters says other governments and the European Parliament still have to agree, and that a final text is unlikely before early next year. It quotes Chancellor Friedrich Merz calling the deal "a good day for motorists and for jobs in Germany, France and Europe," and Anna Krajinska of Transport & Environment calling it a "historic mistake."

Euronews the same day reports a 90 percent fleet-average cut by 2035 without offsetting the rest, contrary to the Commission's initial proposal. It says the original EU rules required a 100 percent reduction for new cars and vans from 2035, and that in December 2025 the Commission proposed replacing that with a 90 percent target that left room for some technologies and fuels. It says a parliamentary vote on the Commission proposal was due in Strasbourg on 23 November.

Read together, the documents support a limited comparison. France's 41.7 percent and Germany's 34.5 percent are one month of registrations, and in both national releases hybrids still held a larger share than battery-electric cars. The 34.6 percent is the bulletin's Germany, repeated by Automotive World. The 90 percent figure is a negotiating position as Reuters and Euronews describe it, not a sentence in the published joint statement, and not a rule those outlets say has been adopted. A strong September in France and Germany does not describe Italy or Poland in the same bulletin, and it does not settle the legislative text.