Spain registered 15,468 battery-electric cars in September 2026, 62.7% more than in the same month last year. Tesla took 3,732 of them — 24.1% of the entire electric market, and more than BYD and Leapmotor put together.
When this site looked at the partial-month Spanish ranking on 19 September, it warned that a quarter-end snapshot flatters Tesla and that the full-September figures, due in early October, were the ones worth having. They have arrived, and they say two things that point in opposite directions.
The month: a Model 3 thirty units short of the whole market
| Model | Units | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla Model 3 | 2,528 | +27.8% |
| Tesla Model Y | 1,204 | +18.4% |
| BYD ATTO 3 EVO | 535 | +98.8% |
| BYD Dolphin Surf | 521 | +3.5% |
| Leapmotor B10 | 486 | — |
| BYD ATTO 2 | 475 | +15.8% |
| Kia EV3 | 446 | −15.6% |
| Toyota C-HR+ | 438 | — |
| Geely E5 | 383 | — |
Ordered by unit count, from DGT registrations compiled by forococheselectricos. The Model 3 did not only win the electric table. On the month's all-powertrain summary it finished 30 units short of being the best-selling car in Spain of any kind — 2,530 against the Toyota C-HR's 2,560, and only 438 of those Toyotas were the electric C-HR+. The electric ranking counts the Model 3 slightly differently, at 2,528, a two-unit gap between two cuts of the same DGT data.
It got there on private demand rather than fleet volume: 2,256 of the Model 3's registrations went to private buyers.
The quarter: Tesla's own numbers went backwards
The monthly table hides what the quarterly one shows.
| Tesla Spain | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 3,171 | 4,535 | +43.0% |
| Q2 | 4,003 | 4,778 | +19.4% |
| Q3 | 5,139 | 4,171 | −18.8% |
| Q1–Q3 | 12,313 | 13,484 | +9.5% |
Tesla's third quarter in Spain fell 18.8% against a strong Q3 2025, and a 43% first quarter is what keeps the nine-month figure positive at all. Set 9.5% growth against a market that grew 62.7% in September alone and the conclusion is unavoidable: Tesla is growing, but far more slowly than the market it leads, which means it is losing share while topping the table.
Year to date, that has already cost it first place. On the January–September brand figures BYD sits on 13,596 registrations to Tesla's 13,473 — a gap of 123 cars.
No European car in the top ten
For the second month running, not one European model finished in Spain's electric top ten. Leapmotor placed four cars in the thirty most-registered electrics and BYD another four; Geely added two, XPeng and Deepal one each. Leapmotor alone reached 1,203 units, from a base that barely existed a year ago, and the new Geely E2 managed 262 in its first full month on sale.
The first European model to break through does so only in the private channel, where the Renault Twingo takes tenth with 220 registrations, ahead of the Renault 5. Both of the European models holding up best with private buyers are small and cheap — which is the one part of the market where the Chinese brands are being answered rather than watched.
September also produced a first: four brands passed 1,000 electric registrations in a single month, and none of them was European.