Affordable, sustainable, secure: the EU’s electric future

Electrification is the central strategy to make use of home grown and clean energy, enhancing long-term competitiveness and resilience. By shifting final energy consumption from fossil fuels to clean electricity, Europe can simultaneously address two interlocking crises: fossil price shocks driven by energy import dependence and climate change. As the power sector increasingly runs on renewables, electrifying industry, buildings and transport translates clean electrons into widespread decarbonisation. At the same time, reducing dependence on imported fossil gas and oil shields consumers and businesses from the price spikes and geopolitical vulnerabilities that have repeatedly destabilised European economies – not least by cutting the EU's energy import bill, which stood at almost 340 billion Euros in 2025.

Despite growing policy ambition, the share of electricity in EU final energy consumption has barely increased. In 2024, the electrification rate stood at 23.4 percent - only marginally above the 23.1 percent recorded in 2023, and broadly in line with a decade-long plateau starting at 23.2 percent in 2014. 

To meet the EU's own 2030 benchmark of 32% electricity share in final energy consumption, the electrification rate must increase by 1.4 percentage points per year – every year until the end of the decade. At current pace, that target is slipping out of reach. Within the last ten years, the share of electricity in the EU’s final energy consumption has risen by only 0.2 percentage points. 

But looking at more recent developments in 2025, the picture is not uniformly bleak anymore: some indicators point to genuinely dynamic growth.

• Heat pumps: Europe saw more than 2.2 million installations in 2025; in Germany, heat pumps accounted for almost half of the heating market, and UK sales rose by 27 percent (EHPA: 2026).
• Electric vehicle registrations have accelerated across Europe, even doubling in Slovakia, Slovenia, Iceland and Poland in 2025. Their overall market share in Europe climbed from 15 to 19 percent (icct: 2026).

These examples show that the underlying technologies are ready and markets are responding. What is missing is the scale and speed of the developing market and technology deployment – as well as their visibility: these encouraging 2025 signals will only appear in the Eurostat electrification statistics at the next annual update in 2027.

Most required data are available already, but would need to be collected earlier and more often. Essential monitoring data on key electrification indicators is fragmented, outdated, published with months or even years of delay or simply unavailable at the EU level. 

The data gaps are especially acute for buildings and heat pumps and the timing is critical: the EU and Member States are actively shaping the next generation of buildings policy (subsidy design, building requirements, market instruments), but all sectors lack the monitoring infrastructure to assess what is working where. 

Some Member States are collecting relevant data, but coverage is patchy, e.g. heat pump stock and sales figures are currently available for only 16 of 27 EU countries, sourced not from official statistics but from industry associations. This data is not systematically collected, harmonised, or published at EU level.

When the EU sets an electrification target, grounded in the continuation of clean energy policy frameworks, it needs to be accompanied by national and sectoral indicators to clarify ambition and support progress tracking. A systematic monitoring framework built on a limited number of timely updated and publicly available KPIs forms the basis for tailoring policies to the different starting points and transition challenges across member states and sectors.

The good news is in all three demand sectors technically feasible and economically viable solutions either already exist or are within reach – strong policy measures can accelerate their deployment. In industry, faster grid connection, CCfDs and energy taxation that ensures electricity can compete with gas can accelerate electrification. In heating, a clean heat market instrument can drive heat pump deployment at scale. In both, buildings and transport, targeted support, e.g. socially balanced support schemes for low-income households can ensure the transition is fast and fair. 

Electrification will be central to Europe’s future. The countries and industries that electrify fastest, building on clean, homegrown power generation, will not just cut emissions, they will win the competition for energy security, industrial strength and economic resilience for decades to come.

The below slide deck is a slightly shorter version of the interactive policy brief, covering the main data and recommendations for measures across industry, buildings and transport.