Sales of New Electric Cars in Europe rose 99.2% in 1Q2021

Sales of new electrically-chargeable passenger cars (battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) reached 445 thousand in the first quarter of 2021 in the enlarged Europe (EU plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), according to ACEA. This is 99.2% more, or 223 thousand more than in the previous year.

Share of electric chargeable vehicles increased to 15.9% of all new passenger cars sold in 1Q2021, up from 8.10% seen in the first quarter of 2020. Most electric vehicles (143 thousand) were sold in Germany (up 172% yoy), followed by France (61.7 thousand, up 74.4%), the United Kingdom with 58.4 thousand thousand cars (up 82.9%), 32.4 thousand new vehicles were registered in Sweden (up 75.3%) and 29.8 thousand in Norway (up 32.0%). The five largest countries accounted for 73.1% of total new vehicles registered in the first quarter of 2021:

As partly seen above, the sale of battery-electric (BEV) increased by 55.6% when compared to last year, while registration of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) rose by 154%.

In relative terms, Norway liked the electric chargeable vehicles the most in the first quarter of 2021 with 82.0% of all new passenger cars sold followed by Iceland (51.6%) and Sweden (35.6%).

On the other end of the scale was Estonia with only 2.22%, Croatia with 1.92% and Cyprus with just 1.69% of electric cars sold, as % of total:

When hybrid electric vehicles (cars that combine a conventional internal combustion engine system with an electric propulsion system) and other alternatively-powered cars (such as natural gas vehicles (NGV), LPG-fueled vehicles and ethanol (E85) vehicles) are included, total sales of alternatively-powered cars (other than using diesel or petrol) amounted to 1,028 thousand vehicles in the first quarter of 2021. This is 94.5% more, or 500 thousand more than in the previous year.

Together with electric chargeable vehicles, the share of total alternatively-powered vehicles increased to 36.8% of all new passenger cars sold in 1Q2021, up from 19.2% seen in the first quarter of 2020:

In relative terms, Norway liked the alternatively-powered vehicles the most in the first quarter of 2021 with 89.1% of all new passenger cars sold followed by Iceland (67.5%) and Finland (56.2%). On the other hand, alternatively-fuelled cars represented only 15.1% of all cars sold in the Czech Republic, 13.3% in Bulgaria and 7.27% in Slovenia, according to ACEA.

Sales of traditionally-powered vehicles using petrol and diesel reached 1,764 thousand in the first quarter of 2021 in the enlarged Europe, according to ACEA. This is 20.8%, or 463 thousand fewer than in the previous year.

Some 1,169 thousand petrol-powered vehicles were sold, down 19.0% when compared to a year ago. The share decreased to 41.9% of all new passenger cars sold in 1Q2021, down from 52.4% seen in the first quarter of 2020. Share of diesel-powered cars fell to 21.3% (from 28.4% in 1Q2020) with 595 thousand cars sold in the first quarter of 2021.

As a result, share of traditionally-powered cars amounted to 63.2% of all new passenger cars sold in 1Q2021, down from 80.8% seen in the first quarter of 2020.

In relative terms, Slovenia liked the petrol-fuelled vehicles the most in the first quarter of 2021 with 61.9% of all new passenger cars sold followed by Cyprus (60.2%) and Netherlands (59.0%). On the other hand, diesel-powered cars were preferred most in Ireland (36.6% of all cars sold), followed by Bulgaria (with 34.1%) and Slovenia (30.8%).