Car sales in Europe are booming: electric cars are gaining ground

In March this year, 1,087,939 new passenger cars were sold in the European Union. That was no less than 28.8 percent more than in March last year. It’s the first time this year that more than a million new passenger cars have been registered in the EU and a growth rate of almost 30% sounds like the market is in great shape. The car market is in better shape, but don’t forget that the first months of 2022 were certainly not good due to, among other things, the global shortage of microchips.

The figures from March 2019 – before the corona pandemic – put things into perspective. In March 2019, 1,722,442 new passenger cars found an owner in the EU. If we exclude the United Kingdom, which was still part of the EU at the time, we arrive at 1,264,388 new cars in March 2019. The car market is well on its way to returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Electric car increasingly popular

In February, sales of electric cars already increased by almost 40 percent compared to the same month of 2022. In March, sales of new electric cars increased even faster, by almost 60 percent. 151,573 new EVs were sold in March, 58 percent more than in March last year. This means that electric cars accounted for a market share of 13.9 percent in March. In March last year, that market share was still 2.5 percentage points lower (11.4%). The Netherlands has also made a small contribution. In the Netherlands, EV sales increased by 132.6 percent in March. This makes the Netherlands the largest EV market in Europe after Germany and Norway.

The hybrid car is also on the rise. In March, a good 38 percent more new hybrid passenger cars were sold with 264,694 units than in March last year. The market share of hybrid passenger cars increased by 1.6 percentage points to 24.3 percent. Plug-in hybrids accounted for a market share of 7.2 percent. The plug-in is losing ground, as the market share of plug-in hybrids was still 1.6 percent higher in March last year.

Gasoline and diesel

Is the traditional petrol car suffering from the rise of hybrids and EVs? Not yet. The market share of petrol cars simply increased in March, albeit by a modest 0.4 percentage point to 37.5 percent. This means that almost 4 out of 10 new passenger cars sold in the European Union are still traditional petrol cars. Although more diesel cars were sold in March than in March last year, the market share fell in line with expectations, by 1.1 percentage points. Nevertheless, almost 15 percent of all cars sold in Europe in March still had a diesel engine under the hood.