New car sales in Bulgaria jumped 27% in August compared with the same month last year, figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) show.

It's the fastest growth so far this year — the previous high was 18.6% in June.

That puts Bulgaria fourth in the EU. Only Estonia, up 50.8%, Malta, up 36.4%, and Lithuania, up 28.2%, did better.

Sales fell in Greece, Romania and Slovakia — by 37.1%, 36.8% and 6.2% respectively.

Across the whole EU, new car sales in August rose 5.3% year-on-year, topping 708,000.

Bulgaria sold 4,679 new cars in August. Petrol models were the most popular, making up 69.6% of the total. Battery-only electric cars came next at 9.2%, followed by diesels at 8.1%, hybrids at 7.8% and plug-in hybrids at 5.4%.

That means in August, for the first time this year, electric cars outsold diesels among new registrations in Bulgaria.

Across the EU as a whole, the picture looks different. Hybrids led the way in August with 33.2% of sales, followed by electric cars at 27.7%. Petrol models came next at 18.9%, then plug-in hybrids at 11.1%. Diesels came last, at just 6.4%.

Over the first eight months of 2026, EU-wide sales rose 5.3% to more than 7.5 million cars. In Bulgaria, sales over the same period grew 9.8%, reaching 35,573 new cars.