Diesel continues to collapse and electrified cars to grow. Thus, more hybrid cars were sold in Europe than diesel in the third quarter. This was revealed by the association of producers Acea. Both battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids nearly doubled their share during the third quarter (July-September) and represent 9.8% and 9.1% of the market respectively. Hybrid electric car registrations accounted for 20.7% of the EU total in the third quarter, behind petrol (39.5%) but ahead of diesel (17.6%), which lost 10 points in one year .
Sales of gasoline cars fell 35.1 percent to reach 855,476 units, with a market share that dropped from 47.6 percent in the third quarter of 2020 to 39.5 percent of the market this year. Diesel suffered even more, as its market share fell by more than 10 percentage points, from 27.8 percent to 17.6 percent, over the same period.
Registrations of new diesel cars have more than halved across the EU region, from 769,922 units sold last year to 381,473 in the third quarter of 2021. During the third quarter of the year, the demand for battery electric vehicles (Bev) in the European Union it increased by 56.7 per cent, for a total of 212,582 units. This is despite the overall decline in new car registrations in the quarter, with growth supported by BEV incentives in several markets. The four main EU markets recorded double or even triple digit percentage increases: Italy (+122.0 per cent), Germany (+62.7 per cent), France (+34.6 per cent) and Spain ( +21.8 percent). Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) also expanded their share of car sales in the EU, with registrations rising 42.6 percent to 197,300 units.
Italy saw the strongest growth of the four key markets, with PHEV sales up 130.6 percent in the third quarter of 2021, followed by Spain (+87.5 percent), France (+49, 5 percent) and Germany (+37.5 percent). Demand for hybrid electric vehicles (Hevs) has seen a sharp rise in the past three months (+31.5 percent) and, with nearly half a million units sold, they remain the most popular alternative form of propulsion in terms of volume. This growth received an extra boost from Central European markets, where demand for hybrid cars grew by 69.3 percent from July to September 2021.
Sales of natural gas (GNV) vehicles in the European Union recorded a significant decline in the third quarter (-48.8 percent), mainly influenced by the drop in demand in Italy (-39.0 percent), which is traditionally the most important market for this type of vehicle. Registrations of LPG-powered cars, on the other hand, increased by 28.1 per cent to 62,574 units, with the strong French performance (+103.2 per cent) which offset the decline in Italy (-4.7 per cent). hundred).
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