STORY: New car sales in Europe rose year-on-year in November for a fifth consecutive month.
They were helped by an increase in EV registrations in markets including Germany, Italy and Spain.
The data from the European auto lobby ACEA showed battery electric registrations, a proxy for sales, reached a market share of over a fifth in the EU.
It was 26% in the UK and 98% in Norway.
The European Commission last week made public a plan to abandon an effective 2035 ban on combustion engine cars.
That was after pressure from the region's auto sector.
And marks the bloc's biggest retreat from its green policies in recent years.
But analysts maintain that for the longer term, EVs are the future.
The data showed sales in the EU, Britain and the European Free Trade Association rose 2.4% to over a million cars in November.
Tesla registrations fell by 11.8%, as record sales in Norway mitigated losses in other markets.
They were up 221% for its Chinese competitor BYD.
That put Tesla's market share in the month at 2.1%, while BYD's was 2%.
