Hybrid car registrations accounted for 20.7% of the total EU car market in the third quarter, surpassing diesel cars for the first time to become the second most popular engine option in the European Union, reports AFP, quoted by agerpres.
According to data published on Friday by the Association of European Car Manufacturers (ACEA), between July and September 2021 sales of cars with gasoline engines decreased by 35.1% annually, to 855,476 units, and their market share decreased from 47.6% in the third quarter of 2020, to 39.5%.
Diesel cars contracted even more sharply, with their market share falling by more than 10 percentage points, from 27.8% to 17.6%. Registrations of new diesel cars in Europe fell by half, from 769,922 units sold in the third quarter of last year to 381,473 units in the third quarter of this year.
At the same time, demand for simple hybrid vehicles has risen sharply (31.5%) in the last three months, with 449,506 such vehicles sold in the EU. The advance of hybrid cars in Europe is mainly due to a 69.3% increase in sales in Central European countries between July and September 2021. According to ACEA data, sales of simple hybrids in Romania increased by 153.6% in the quarter third, when 10,355 such cars were registered.
Also, thanks to subsidies, the market share of plug-in hybrid cars and fully electric cars almost doubled, reaching 9.8% and 9.1% of the market, respectively. In total, almost a fifth (19%) of vehicles sold in the European Union in the third quarter were an electrified model. According to ACEA, sales of battery-powered vehicles increased by 56.7% to 212,582 units while sales of plug-in hybrid models increased by almost 42.6% to 197,300 units.
Sales of all-electric cars have doubled annually in Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Austria. Also, in Germany and France, the first two major European markets increased by 62.7% and 34.6%, respectively. In the case of plug-in hybrid models, in the third quarter the highest percentage increase was recorded in Italy (130.6%), followed by Spain (87.5%), France (49.5%) and Germany ( 37.5%).
Starting in 2020, car manufacturers have expanded their range of hybrid and electric models in a car market affected by the effects of the health crisis and the shortage of semiconductors. For example, at the German sports car manufacturer Porsche, between July and September 2021, the sales of Taycan all-electric cars exceeded those of the 911 model.
