Hyundai, on the strength of the battery-powered version of its Kona, got 14.4 percent of its overall sales from full-electric models in Europe last year.
Hyundai narrowly defeated Renault, led by the Zoe small electric hatchback, which had a 14.3 percent share, according to figures from Dataforce.
Volkswagen was third with a 13.1 percent on demand for its ID3 and ID4 compact EVs.
Hyundai sold 43,271 units of the Kona Electric last year, compared with 71,530 Zoes, 69,441 ID3 and 54,964 ID4, but with a lowered overall volume than Renault and VW it was able to take the top spot in the key metric that indicates how quickly some brands are shifting their lineups away from combustion engines.
A number of brands already have a 100 percent EV share in Europe, including Tesla, Polestar and Smart.
