More than 85 percent of new cars in Europe have a combustion engine

ACEA has collected the registrations of new passenger cars in EU countries. This means that it is now known how many new passenger cars were already registered in the European Union this year. Up to and including September, 7,940,749 new passenger cars have been registered in the EU. That is 16.9 percent more than in the same period last year.

That sounds very nice, but the figures are still far from the level they were before the corona pandemic. In the first three quarters of 2019 – the last pre-corona year – the registration counter in the European Union stood at 11,769,175 units. Of course, this included the figures for the United Kingdom. If we remove that, we arrive at 9,906,904 copies in the first three quarters of 2019. So almost 2 million more. Quite a difference from where 2023 is so far.

Electric

Of the almost 8 million new cars registered in the EU so far in 2023, 1,112,192 were fully electric. That is more than 55 percent more than in the same period last year (716,843 units). This means that fully electric cars in the European Union already account for a 14 percent share this year. Quite a lot, but that also means that 86 percent of new cars are not EVs, but simply have a drivetrain with a combustion engine.

We previously took stock of the Dutch market. In the first three quarters of this year, more than 70 percent of new passenger cars registered in the Netherlands had a combustion engine.

Conventional petrol in the lead

No fewer than 2,878,365 new cars have a (mild-hybrid) petrol engine. This means that petrol cars account for a 36.2 percent share of the European car market. 1,116,774 new cars (-4.2 percent compared to 2022) have a diesel engine. Diesel therefore accounts for a 14 percent share. This year there were roughly as many electric cars as cars with a diesel engine registered in Europe.

Hybrids have already reached 1,998,921 units this year (+29 percent compared to 2022), accounting for a 25.2 percent share. So more than a quarter. Plug-ins amount to 597,376 registered copies. That is 1.8 percent more than last year. Plug-in hybrids account for a share of about 7.5 percent. Furthermore, 237,121 new cars with a drivetrain of a different category are registered. This includes cars that (also) use LPG or CNG, but also EVs with a fuel cell. These numbers are small.

Volkswagen in the lead

Car brand Volkswagen was the largest car brand with 873,432 registrations (+21.7 percent) in the first three quarters of this year. Toyota follows at a considerable distance with 513,463 registrations (+9.3 percent). In third place we find Renault with 466,488 registered cars, followed by Peugeot in fourth place with 450,460 new passenger cars registered this year. In fifth place we find Skoda with 433,173 registrations. Tesla has already registered 203,010 new cars in the EU this year.