Hyundai Motor aims to double EV sales in Europe this year as it braces for changes to European Union legislation on CO2 emissions, the company’s chief financial officer said.

Automakers risk fines if they miss the EU’s 2025 CO2 emissions reduction targets that are about 15 percent lower than the 2021 levels.

“We will do our best to meet the emissions targets. And for us to do that, [raising] the overall proportion of EVs is the main part of our strategy,” Seung Jo Lee, Hyundai’s chief financial officer, said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Jan 23.

Hyundai sold just under 70,000 EVs in Europe in 2024. “We are looking to double that,” Lee said.

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Last year Hyundai EV sales fell in Europe by 15 percent to 68,279, according to figures from market analyst Dataforce.

Much of the fall came from Germany, where Hyundai’s EV sales dropped by 41 percent. Sales of electric cars were impacted by the German government’s decision to remove purchase incentives on EVs.

Overall Hyundai wholesales fell 3.8 percent in Europe in 2024 “due to weaker demand for EVs,” Michael Yun, Hyundai’s head of investment relations, said on the earnings call.

Last year 11 percent of Hyundai’s European sales were EVs, down from 15 percent in 2023. Doubling sales would put the figure above 20 percent, which is where automakers including Renault have said they need EV figures to be to be able to meet the new CO2 requirements.

Hyundai’s budget Inster to boost EV sales

Automakers including Renault and Volkswagen Group have called for relief from possible fines for missing the targets as they struggle to ramp up EV sales.

Much of Hyundai’s increase in EV sales in Europe for 2025 will come from the newly launched low-cost Inster electric minicar. The Inster starts at €23,900 ($25,000) in Germany for the entry model with a 42-kilowatt-hour battery.

Hyundai is currently offering the car to German customers for €199 a month with no down payment.

Hyundai has also said it will offer the newly launched Ioniq 9 large electric SUV in Europe this year.

The car was unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show in November with a 110 kWh battery.

The Ioniq 9 is a sister model to the Kia EV9, which sold over 10,000 units in Europe last year. Hyundai said the Ioniq 9 would have a WLTP-measured range of 620 km (385 miles).

Hyundai is also expected to reveal a compact model potentially called Ioniq 3 in 2025 that would follow the Kia EV3, which launched in 2024.

Hyundai’s biggest selling electric model in Europe last year was the Kona small SUV, accounting for just over half of the brand’s European EV total at 36,526, according to figures from Dataforce.

The Ioniq 5 midsize SUV was the next best-selling EV at 22,830. The Ioniq 6 sedan was a relatively niche model with 8,731 sales.

Hyundai also includes Genesis sales in its European figures. Last year the premium brand sold 1,383 electric models in Europe and this year will drop all combustion-engine variants in a move that will help lower Hyundai’s overall CO2 figures.