In the second quarter of this year, battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids (PHEV), and traditional hybrids (HEV) accounted for 41.2% of all European car sales.
Petrol cars, meanwhile, accounted for 38.5% and diesel cars for just 17.3%, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Associaton (ACEA).
From April to June 2022, registrations of battery electric cars in the EU grew by 11.1%. S
pain and France contributed to the positive performance of BEVs, posting double-digit gains (+22.0% and +18.6% respectively). Italy on the other hand posted a substantial loss (‑19.6%), while Germany witnessed slight negative growth (-0.5%).
PHEVs managed to expand their market share during the period, despite a 12.5% reduction in overall sales. HEV sales slipped by 2.2% but their overall market share grew by 22.6%.
With the exception of Spain (+11.3%), all key markets posted declines in PHEV sales: France (-17.4%), Germany (-16.9%) and Italy (-6.9%).
The increased market share of BEVs, PHEVs, and HEVs was largely due to car sales declining overall within the EU.
Petrol sales, for example, plunged by almost one-quarter (22.2%) across the EU. This means that less than one million petrol cars were sold across the EU in Q2 this year.
Diesel sales meanwhile, plunged by 27.7% and accounted for less than 500,000 units across the trading bloc.
As a result, the overall market share of petrol and diesel cars within the EU dropped from 62% in Q2 2021 to 55.8% this year.
The news should hardly be surprising with European heavyweights such as BMW and Mercedes reporting that overall sales are down significantly while sales of electrified models increased significantly.
