1 in 7 new cars registered in Europe are electric –

In the European Union, 938,950 new passenger cars were registered in May, up 18.5 percent from May last year. This was reported by the ACEA trade association. If we add the registrations of the EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and those of the United Kingdom, we come to at least 1,121,644 (+18.2 percent) new passenger cars registered. It is the tenth consecutive month that the European car market has shown growth.

The May figures bring the total number of new passenger cars registered in the EU in the first five months of this year to 4,493,951 units, up exactly 18 percent from the same period last year. However, the European car market has not yet reached the level it was in before the Corona pandemic. In the first five months of 2019, 5.7 million new passenger vehicles were registered in the European Union.

Of the nearly 940,000 new passenger vehicles registered in May, 129,847 were all-electric vehicles, up 71 percent from May last year. Thus, electric cars captured a market share of 13.8 percent. This means that one in seven new cars in the European Union was an EV. In May, 69,380 plug-in (-0.6%, market share 7.4%) and 234,380 (+27.6%, market share 25%) vehicles with a plug-in hybrid powertrain were registered.

The majority of new passenger cars registered in the European Union still have a petrol engine. In May it was 342,806 units (+12.6%). Thus, gasoline-powered cars captured a market share of 36.5 percent. Diesel engines are still losing popularity. In May, 133,867 self-igniters were registered, 3 percent less than in May last year. Diesel acquired a market share of 14.3 percent in May. If we look at the first five months of this year, we see that 545,441 new electric vehicles were registered, which represents a market share of more than 12 percent. The petrol-powered vehicle was also the most popular during the January-May period (1,640,829 units, more than 37 percent market share).