Electric cars popular? In Europe more and more people are buying diesel

In the Netherlands we may be wrong about the popularity of electric cars. Here they have a market share of more than a quarter, but in Europe as a whole things are not going so fast. According to ACEA figures, even diesel engines are more popular.

Let’s not get too negative. The fact that fully electric cars have a market share of 12.4 percent in the EU is of course quite impressive. But remember, we need to get to 100 percent by 2035.

Electric cars more popular than plug-in hybrids

In the first five months of 2023, the distribution by drive is as follows: only 7.2 percent are plug-in hybrids, 12.4 percent are fully electric, 14.8 percent have a petrol engine, and 25.1 percent are Hybrids and 37.3 percent are purely electric powered by a gasoline power plant.

The increase in electric vehicle sales in the Netherlands has been huge

Of course, these percentages don’t tell the whole story. The number of electric vehicles sold rose by a whopping 70.9 percent compared to the same period last year. It was even faster in the Netherlands and Sweden: increases of 118.4 and 82.6 percent respectively.

There are no longer any tax advantages for plug-in hybrids in Germany

The number of hybrids sold also rose by 27.6 percent, but plug-in hybrids are becoming increasingly popular (down 0.6 percent), particularly in Germany, where they will no longer receive tax benefits since 2022. And that led to a 40.5 percent drop in sales.

Except in Italy, diesel is on the decline

Despite the further electrification of the car market, the number of new cars sold that only had a petrol engine also increased. The market for this grew by 12.6 percent. Diesels sold 2.9 percent less, although the Italians bought almost 25 percent more.

Fewer cars were still sold than in 2019

From January to May around 4.4 million new cars were sold in the EU, an increase of 18 percent. That’s still less than what was sold in the same period in 2019: 5.7 million copies.