Diesel is declining, electric is growing
The vast majority of new cars sold in the EU are still equipped with a petrol engine. Moreover, the market share has remained stable for years. The sales share of electric cars is growing, but not necessarily at the expense of petrol cars.
In the European Union, the market share of petrol cars (with or without electric assistance) has been hovering around 60 percent for years. This is evident from figures from Jato Dynamics. The rise of electric driving will not change that for the time being. There is clearly a decrease in the number of new cars sold with diesel engines.
The graph above shows the development in recent years. Besides the average stability of the share of petrol cars, more things stand out. For example, the growth in the share of newly sold electric cars is unmissable, but the growth is quite gradual in nature. Moreover, the share has been fluctuating between 10 and 20 percent for more than two years now. It is also noticeable that there are some clear peaks in the share at the end of the year. This most likely has to do with the expiring tax benefits for electric cars, as we have experienced here in the Netherlands with the addition. There is often a run on electric cars just before New Year’s Eve. As mentioned, the most obvious development is the decline in the market share of diesel cars. That share is now almost just a quarter of what it was at the beginning of 2018.
The above distribution that ACEA recently showed gives a more detailed picture of the current situation. The lion’s share of hybrid cars (a share of more than 25 percent in July) must therefore have been a hybrid with a petrol engine. As can also be seen here, diesel cars and fully electric cars no longer differ in terms of sales share. In June, the share of fully electric new cars exceeded that of new cars with only a diesel engine for the first time, according to ACEA. We will see this more often if the current trend continues, but the petrol car seems far from being dethroned EU-wide.
In the Netherlands things are a little different; Here last month, about a third of new cars sold were electric and diesel cars have almost completely disappeared from the sales pie. Gasoline cars and hybrid cars together account for a market share of more than 65 percent.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl