Demand for electric cars in the European Union increased by 81.3% in the last quarter of 2019, compared to 11.9% for petrol cars, while sales of diesel cars fell by 3.7%, according to the latest figures published by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
“Figures show that consumer demand is there and paves the way for 2020 to be the year of the electric car”, reacted the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). And Julia Poliscanova, Director of Clean Vehicles at T&E, added: “the reason for the low sales until now has been a poor supply of models by car makers”.
Despite progress, the market share of electric vehicles in the EU remains very low. Electric cars – which include battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids – accounted for only 4.4% of total new car sales between October and December 2019, much lower than the share of petrol cars (57.3%) and diesel cars (29.5%).
In 2019 as a whole, 3.1% of all new cars registered in the EU were powered by electricity, one percentage point more than in 2018, compared to almost 60% for petrol and 30.5% for diesel.
For ACEA figures: http://bit.ly/31toc3e (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)