Europe: Electric cars occupied 20.7% of the total market

According to the official data of ACEA, in Q3 2021, from July to September, the market share of electric charged cars was further expanded in the EU, taking a share in sales from models equipped only with petrol and diesel engines.

Both pure electric cars and hybrid plug-ins almost doubled their share during that three-month period, accounting for 9.8% and 9.1%, respectively, of the market.

Hybrid electric passenger car registrations occupied 20.7% of the total EU market in the third quarter, surpassing diesel. For the first time, hybrid electric cars were the second most popular consumer choice in the European Union.

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From July to September 2021, conventional petrol and diesel cars continued to lose ground. Gasoline car sales contracted by 35.1% compared to the same period last year, reaching 855,476 units.

Sales of diesel-powered cars struggled even more, as market share fell by more than 10 percentage points, from 27.8% to 17.6%, compared to the same period last year. Registrations of new diesel cars have fallen by more than half across the EU, from 769,922 units sold last year to 381,473 in the third quarter of 2021.

In the third quarter of the year, demand for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the European Union increased by 56.7%, reaching a total of 212,582 units. It is worth noting that this increase came despite the overall decrease in registrations of new cars during the quarter.

Their growth was boosted by incentives given to some states to boost their sales. As a result, the four major EU markets recorded double-digit or even triple-digit percentage increases: Italy (+122.0%), Germany (+62.7%), France (+34.6%) and Spain (+21.8%).

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) also expanded their share of car sales in the EU, with registrations rising by 42.6% to 197,300 units. Italy saw the strongest growth of the four key markets, with PHEV sales increasing by 130.6% in the third quarter of 2021, followed by Spain (+87.5%), France (+49.5%) and Germany (+37.5%).

Demand for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) has seen strong growth over the past three months (+31.5%) and, with nearly half a million sales, they remain the most popular alternative powertrain in terms of sales volume. This growth received an additional boost from central European markets, where demand for hybrid cars increased by 69.3% from July to September 2021.

Sales of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in the European Union fell significantly in the third quarter (-48.8%), mainly due to a decrease in demand in Italy (-39.0%), which is traditionally the largest market for this type of vehicle. Car registrations with LPG, on the other hand, increased by 28.1% to 62,574 units, with strong French performance (+103.2%) offsetting the decline in Italy (-4.7%

source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ

ACEA

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