Sales of fully electric cars in Europe's main auto markets were up by almost a third ​in the first quarter this year, as drivers turned to alternatives to combustion engines after ⁠the war in Iran ⁠caused the highest spike in petrol prices in years.

New battery-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations, a proxy for sales, ​rose 29.4% from a year ago ​to ⁠almost 560,000 in the quarter and were up 51.3% at over 240,000 in March alone in 15 European markets, data collected by trade association E-Mobility Europe and research firm New Automotive showed on Monday.

Last year, those markets accounted for 94% of all BEV sales in the European Union and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), whose countries align with EU laws regulating CO2 ⁠emissions, data ⁠by the ACEA auto lobby shows.

"March's surge in electric car sales is one of Europe's biggest recent gains in energy security, in a month when oil dependence has become a real vulnerability," E-Mobility Europe Secretary General Chris Heron said in a statement.

The joint statement from the two organisations said the half-million BEVs ⁠registered in the quarter were enough to reduce oil consumption by 2 million barrels per year (bpd).

The region's five largest EV markets – ​Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland – have recorded growth of ​more than 40% in BEV sales so far this year, it said. It is estimated that ⁠21.2% of ‌all new ‌cars registered in the EU and ⁠EFTA in March were electric.

In a ‌separate report published earlier in April, New Automotive said BEV registrations ​in Britain, Europe's second-biggest BEV ⁠market after Germany, grew 12.8% ⁠in the quarter, also helped by rising petrol prices, and ⁠accounted for 22.5% ​of new car sales in the country.