One in ten EU car purchases now EVs

In the third quarter of 2020, almost one in 10 passenger cars sold in the EU was an electrically-chargeable vehicle (9.9%), compared to 3.0% during the same period last year. Industry analysis showed that growth in EVs was at the expense of both petrol and diesel cars which suffered further dramatic falls.

Analysis from industry association ACEA showed that the support measures introduced by various countries to stimulate car demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic did so at the expense of conventionally-powered vehicles.

However, diesel and petrol together still accounted for more than 75% of total EU car sales from July to September.

During the third quarter, cars powered by conventional internal combustion engines lost further ground, with their overall market share going down from 88.6% in July-September 2019 to 75.4% this year.

Diesel cars accounted for just 27.8% of total passenger car sales in the EU, with registrations falling by 13.7% to 766,146 units.

Petrol sales posted an even steeper drop, down 24.3%, going from over 1.7 million units last year to 1.3 million units in the third quarter of 2020. This represents a market share of 47.5%, with petrol going below 50% for the first time since 2016.

With the exception of Cyprus, all EU markets saw declines in demand for petrol cars during the three-month period, including the four major markets.

From July to September 2020, registrations of electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) more than tripled, and were up 211.6% to reach 273,809 units and a market share of 9.9%.

This strong growth was mainly due to the introduction of incentives by national governments, seeking to boost demand in response to the corona crisis, which has been largely to the benefit of buyers of battery and plug-in electric cars.

As a result, demand for plug-in hybrids (PHEV) boomed and were up 368% during the third quarter, going from 29,557 units last year to 138,348 new cars sold in 2020.

Both Germany and France recorded increases of over 400% each. Growth in registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEV) was also strong across the European Union and were up 132.3%), totalling 135,461 units over the three-month period.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) remained the best-selling alternatively-powered vehicle type in the EU, posting an increase of 88.8% in the third quarter of the year. In total, 341,092 hybrid electric cars were sold from July to September 2020, representing 12.4% of the EU car market.

Demand for cars running on alternative fuels – ethanol (E85), liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas (NGV) – slowed down in the third quarter of 2020, down 6.8%, albeit this was a more moderate pace compared to the previous quarter. This was mainly the result of declining sales of natural gas-fuelled cars which were down 13.2%, while registrations of LPG vehicles remained almost unchanged.

All alternatively-powered vehicles (APV) combined represented almost 25% of the EU car market from July to September 2020, with sales doubling from 337,108 units last year to 678,777 this year.

Among the four major markets, Germany, up 159.8%, and France, up 144.1%, posted the biggest increases, mainly driven by exceptionally strong sales of plug-in hybrids, followed by Italy, up 60.3% and Spain up 51.6%.

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