Why are almost three times more electric cars sold in Slovenia than in Croatia?

Every year, a lot of dust is raised about the sale of electric cars on the Croatian market, which is largely dependent on state incentives. It is these incentives of the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency that create disorder in the market and prevent a better and more advanced market. Namely, from year to year there is uncertainty as to whether there will be incentives or not. If there are, how does the procedure for applying for incentives go, do the buyers do it themselves or do car sellers do it all for them. The confusion could hardly be greater. And the worst thing is that no lessons are learned from the previous years and the system is not improving, but rather regressing to a good extent. How does this affect sales of new electric cars? Extremely bad, and not so far away, but much more developed markets show us that. We have an example of success just a few kilometers from Zagreb. In Slovenia.

So similar, yet so different

Competitions for incentives to buy electric cars in Slovenia do not last a few minutes, until the “fastest finger” system is stabilized, they last almost a whole year. How much are they? Less than with us – a maximum of €7,200 (with us it is €9,000). This maximum amount can be obtained for the purchase of a passenger vehicle worth up to €35,000 including VAT. If the passenger car is worth 35,000 to 45,000 euros, the incentive is 6,500 euros. The next amount is a €4,500 incentive for vehicles with a VAT price of €45,000 to €65,000. Also, Slovenia introduced 2,000 to 3,500 euros of incentives for the purchase of used electric vehicles. These are EV models up to three years old, with a larger amount being received for vehicles worth up to €45,000, or a smaller amount for those worth between €45,000 and €65,000. And an important difference – the incentive is given for vehicles that have already been purchased, not those that will be purchased. So, first buy and pay, and then ask for an incentive.

And now a little about the numbers. During the first three months of this year, 16,738 new passenger cars were registered in Croatia. The largest number refers to hybrids, of which there were 7,417 or 44.3%. Only 4.8% or 807 vehicles refer to those that have a fully electric drive. This mostly refers to last year’s incentives intended for companies, that is, legal entities and trades. There are currently no incentives for natural persons. It is announced that it could be at the end of the year, and we know very well how announcements end in Croatia. After that, a few months ago, the Fund announced a tender for taxi and delivery services, which is reportedly experiencing a slightly stronger debacle.

Registrations of the 20 most popular electric models in Slovenia 1-3/2026.

At the same time, 16,501 new passenger cars were registered in neighboring Slovenia during the first three months of this year, including 2,297 EVs. So that is 2.85 times more than EV models that arrived in Croatia this year.

In addition, it is interesting to note that during March the most requested car was the electric one – Tesla Model 3 with 352 copies. Thus, this American EV model left behind the traditionally popular Renault Clio in Slovenia, which had 192 units, the Skoda Octavia, which had 199 registrations, or the Nissan Qashqai, which reached 241 units. The second most requested EV model during March in Slovenia was the Volkswagen ID.7 with 57 units, followed by the Tesla Model Y with 49 units, the same amount achieved by Skoda’s Elroq model.

At the annual level, the Tesla Model 3 reached 364 registrations, while the Leapmotor T03 came in second place with 149 copies. It is again followed by Tesla and Model Y with 128 units.

Sales of EV models by brand in Slovenia 1-3/2026.

Hybrids

In contrast to the statistics available for the Croatian car market, those covering neighboring Slovenia provide separate figures for mild-hybrids, hybrids, or plug-in hybrids. Of course, the least represented are the most expensive circuits, and we are talking about plug-in hybrids. During the first three months of this year, there were 734 of them in Slovenia. The leading model is the Mercedes GLC, which had 125 registrations. It is followed by the B-class with 67 copies, and you wouldn’t believe that there is a Mercedes – A-class in third place with 58 plug-in hybrid registrations. Basically, of the 52 models of plug-in hybrids that arrived this year, 16 of them refer to Mercedes models, which with 384 units hold over 52% of the market.

There are 1272 classic hybrids. As expected, Toyota reigns supreme here, with five models and 773 registrations, or 60.77% of the market. Mild hybrids, on the other hand, number 1,394 vehicles on 35 different models. The leader is Peugeot 2008 with 189 units, so Peugeot is also the most numerous brand with 410 vehicles. It is followed by Suzuki with 256 and Opel with 166 initial hybrids.

We share a border that is 670 kilometers long, and thus a lot of diversity in many segments of business, thinking, and arranging certain things. We hope, however, that the development of our market, and by that we also mean incentives for the purchase of electric cars, will find far more fertile ground compared to what we had, or what we have now.