Car sales in the European Union continue to pick up

In February, 802,763 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union. That was 11.5 percent more than in the same month of 2022. That is an excellent growth rate, but don’t forget that the first months of 2022 were certainly not good due to, among other things, the worldwide shortage of microchips. In comparison, in February 2019 – before the pandemic – 1,114,692 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union. That does indeed include the United Kingdom. If we exclude that country from the February 2019 figures, we arrive at 1,032,723 cars. Significantly more than were registered in the EU in February this year.

In February, with 97,300 units, almost 40 percent more new electric cars were registered than in February 2021. This means that EVs accounted for a market share of 12.1 percent, about 2.5 percentage points more than in the second month of 2022. In the Netherlands According to ACEA, no less than 88.9 percent more electric cars were registered in February than in the same month last year. Conventional hybrids also gained ground again in February. In February 204,883 regular hybrids were registered in the EU, 22.3 percent more than in February 2022. Hybrids accounted for a market share of 25.5 percent (2022: 23.3 percent). The popularity of plugins continues to decline. In February, with 57,569 units, about 7.5 percent fewer plug-in hybrids were registered than in the same month of 2022.

Conventional petrol cars still account for the largest numbers. The market share of cars with a petrol engine was 36.9 percent in February. Diesel’s lost ground. The market share of cars with a diesel engine fell by 3 percentage points to 15 percent.