- European new car buyers are loving EVs more and more.
- Last month, 29% of all new cars sold in the region were electric.
- From the beginning of the year through August, EVs beat both gas and diesel cars.
European car buyers are supercharging the region’s EV adoption rate with continually higher numbers. Last month, 29% of all new cars sold in Europe were electric, bringing the average market share for the January through August period up to 23%, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
The data is backed by registration numbers published by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the region’s main automotive lobby group, which show that 29.2% of all new cars registered last month in the European Union, UK, and EFTA countries were EVs, up from last year’s 20.2% share. The same lobby group says EVs have a year-to-date market share of 23.2%.
Meanwhile, traditional combustion passenger cars, powered by either gas or diesel engines, continue to go down in popularity. In August, gas cars accounted for just 18.5% of all registrations, while diesel cars captured just 5.8% of the European market, according to ACEA. Through the first eight months of the year, combustion cars (gas and diesel combined) had a 27.9% market share, per ACEA, while the ICCT says that number was 29%.
That’s clearly more than the 23% share captured by EVs, but the trend is clear. Last year, EVs had 17.7% of the market at the end of August, while gas and diesel accounted for 35.8% of the new car market.
It’s great news for everyone, but especially for people who live in dense urban areas, where studies have shown that replacing combustion cars with EVs leads to significant health benefits.
Things are going so well that Volkswagen has found itself in the awkward situation where it needs to cut back combustion car production and boost EV assembly in its home country, which also happens to be the region’s biggest car market. Thanks to the huge success of the new ID. Polo, VW now has more orders for EVs in Germany than combustion cars, a first for the company.
But Europeans aren’t out of the woods yet. Even with hundreds of EV models to choose from, including dozens of affordable options, the gas engine still looms over the region’s car market in the form of mild hybrids and traditional hybrids.
Hybrids are now topping Europe’s car sales charts, getting 32.8% of the market in August. That said, with EVs going as hard as they are right now, the rise of hybrids has been somewhat tame compared to the United States, with a year-to-date market share of 36.3%, up from 34.7% during the same period last year, according to ACEA.
Among local automakers, BMW Group had the biggest share of EVs from January through August, with 30% of all cars sold being electric, the ICCT said. That’s 10 percentage points more than last year.
Norway is still the undisputed leader when it comes to the number of EVs registered, with a whopping 98% of all new cars registered from January to August being electric. Denmark is a close second, with 82%, followed by Finland with 50%, Iceland with 47%, and Sweden with 43%. Meanwhile, Croatia is at the bottom of the list, with only 4% of new cars registered being EVs, according to the ICCT.
