EU New Cars Buyers Still Prefer Petrol
- Written by : Ashton G. Curran
- Date Published : 2023-03-29
- Date Updated : 2023-03-29
- Category / Tag : articles
In the first two months of the year, the EU market reached almost 1.6 million new cars registered, up 11.4% on the previous year, thanks to double-digit increases in both January and February.
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Looking at the big four EU markets, Spain (+32.1%) and Italy (+18.2%) posted the highest gains, followed by France (+9.1%). German car registrations remained flat (+0.2%) during this two month period.
February saw an increase in the number of battery electric and hybrid cars registered in the EU, now accounting for 12.1% and 25.5% of the market respectively. However, petrol remained the top choice for newly registered cars in the EU, with a market share of 36.9%.
Last month, new battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations in the EU rose by 39.7% to 97,300 cars, resulting in a market share of 12.1%, compared to 9.7% in February 2022.
Apart from the Czech Republic (-3.2%) and Slovakia (-28.2%), all markets in the region contributed to this growth with double- and triple-digit percentage gains, including the three largest: Germany (+14, 7%), France (+45.7%) and the Netherlands (+88.9%).
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) also had a strong month, with sales increasing by 22.3% to 204,883 units. This growth was largely sustained by double-digit gains in the region's four key markets: Spain (+31.8%), France (+24.6%), Germany (+24.2%) and Italy (+23, 9%). As a result, HEVs achieved a market share of 25.5%, up from 23.3% in February 2022.
In contrast, plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) registrations in the EU fell by 7.4% to 57,569 cars sold. This decrease was mainly due to the significant drop in sales in Germany (-44.8%), following the end of subsidies for plug-in hybrids in 2022.
In February 2023, registrations of new petrol cars in the EU increased by 11.1%, holding a market share of 36.9%, which is equivalent to the share recorded in 2022. Spain (+19.0%), Italy ( +16.3%), Germany (+8.9%) and France (+7.7%) all contributed to this growth.
On the other hand, the diesel car market in the EU continued to decline (-8.4%), despite increases in some Central European markets such as Poland (+18.9%) and the Czech Republic (+12.4%) ), as well as in Italy. (+2.2%). This resulted in a market share of 15.0%, down 3.2 percentage points from February 2022.