BEVs surpass diesel registrations for the first time in Europe

BEVs surpass diesel registrations for the first time in Europe

Electrive — 2023-07-19

Automotive Industry

For the first time, more electric cars than diesel cars were newly registered in the EU in June. This was reported by the European manufacturers’ association ACEA.

Registrations of new BEV passenger cars rose by 66.2% in the EU in June compared to the same month last year, to 158,252 cars. This represents a 15.1% share of new registrations (up from 10.7% in June 2022). The market share of diesel cars fell from 17.4 to 13.4% compared to June 2022, while that of plug-in hybrids declined slightly from 8.2 to 7.9%.

According to ACEA, 703,586 battery-electric passenger cars were newly registered in the EU in the first half of the year, 53.8% more than in the same period last year. Across all types of drive, there were around 5.4m units, resulting in a BEV share of 13.0% for this period. Especially at the turn of the year, EV registrations had temporarily declined in some countries, as subsidy guidelines were adjusted – such as in Germany with a lower 2023 environmental bonus. In the year to date, however, new registrations of electric cars have recovered.

The best-selling model in Europe across all drive types was a pure electric car, according to preliminary figures from the market research company Dataforce: the Tesla Model Y topped the model rankings both in June and throughout the first half of the year.

However, this was not necessarily due to the weakness of the competition, but to the strong growth of the Tesla: In the first half of 2022, Dataforce still registered 40,147 new Model Ys in Europe, and now it was 125,144 units. With this result, the Model Y was around 7,000 sales ahead of the second-placed model, the Dacia Sandero. The VW T-Roc follows another 11,000 vehicles behind. The Tesla Model 3 came in 50th place with 38,843 units in the first half of the year.