Sales of New Electric Cars in Europe rose 229% in 4Q2020

Sales of new electrically-chargeable passenger cars (battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) reached 584 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2020 in the enlarged Europe (EU plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland), according to ACEA. This is 229% more, or 178 thousand more than in the previous year.

Share of electric chargeable vehicles increased to 19.6% of all new passenger cars sold in 4Q2020, up from 5.35% seen in the fourth quarter of 2019. Most electric vehicles (190 thousand) were sold in Germany (up 455% yoy), followed by France (74.8 thousand, up 291%), the United Kingdom with 66.2 thousand thousand cars (up 168%), 49.9 thousand new vehicles were registered in Netherlands (up 51.8%) and 38.2 thousand in Norway (up 111%). The five largest countries accounted for 71.9% of total new vehicles registered in the fourth quarter of 2020:

As partly seen above, the sale of battery-electric (BEV) increased by 205% when compared to last year, while registration of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) rose by 262%.

In relative terms, Norway liked the electric chargeable vehicles the most in the fourth quarter of 2020 with 82.9% of all new passenger cars sold followed by Iceland (58.5%) and Netherlands (46.3%).

On the other end of the scale was Latvia with only 2.85%, Poland with 2.66% and Slovakia with just 1.82% 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 1,056 thousand vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2020. This is 121% more, or 579 thousand more than in the previous year.

Together with electric chargeable vehicles, the share of total alternatively-powered vehicles increased to 35.3% of all new passenger cars sold in 4Q2020, up from 14.4% seen in the fourth quarter of 2019:

In relative terms, Norway liked the alternatively-powered vehicles the most in the fourth quarter of 2020 with 90.6% of all new passenger cars sold followed by Iceland (69.2%) and Netherlands (60.9%). On the other hand, alternatively-fuelled cars represented only 17.3% of all cars sold in Croatia, 11.9% in the Czech Republic and 11.0% in Slovenia, according to ACEA.

Sales of traditionally-powered vehicles using petrol and diesel reached 1,931 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2020 in the enlarged Europe, according to ACEA. This is 32.1%, or 911 thousand fewer than in the previous year.

Some 1,210 thousand petrol-powered vehicles were sold, down 34.6% when compared to a year ago. The share decreased to 40.5% of all new passenger cars sold in 4Q2020, down from 55.7% seen in the fourth quarter of 2019. Share of diesel-powered cars fell to 24.1% (from 29.9% in 4Q2019) with 721 thousand cars sold in the fourth quarter of 2020.

As a result, share of traditionally-powered cars amounted to 64.7% of all new passenger cars sold in 4Q2020, down from 85.6% seen in the fourth quarter of 2019.

In relative terms, the Czech Republic liked the petrol-fuelled vehicles the most in the fourth quarter of 2020 with 58.6% of all new passenger cars sold followed by Slovakia (57.9%) and Poland (57.3%). On the other hand, diesel-powered cars were preferred most in Estonia (38.2% of all cars sold), followed by Croatia (with 34.9%) and Slovenia (33.8%).