Fully electric cars continue to gain popularity. According to the European automotive trade association ACEA, almost one in ten new passenger cars sold in the EU in the third quarter was an electric model (9.9 percent). A year earlier this was 3 percent. Sales of electric vehicles tripled from a year earlier.
According to ACEA, the electric car is conquering market share on diesels and petrol cars, among other things. For example, in the third quarter the market share of new petrol cars fell below half (47.5 percent) for the first time since 2016, and 28 percent of new cars still run on diesel. Combustion engines therefore account for more than 75 percent of the new passenger car market.
From July to September, sales of electric cars tripled to over 273,809 cars. According to ACEA, the strong growth is partly due to governments, which want to stimulate the demand for electric cars in response to the corona crisis.
The plug-in hybrid also benefited from those government incentives. Its sales rose by 368 percent in Q3 to more than 138,348 cars. Hybrid models remained the most popular alternative to traditional combustion engines, with a market share of over 12 percent. Cars running on alternative fuels such as ethanol and LPG accounted for just over 2 percent.
In the Netherlands, sales of fully electric cars rose by 40 percent in the third quarter. 19,125 electric vehicles were sold, compared to 13,651 a year earlier.