Sales of electric, plug-in, and hybrid vehicles grew significantly in Europe last year, despite an overall weak market for new cars. As a result, alternatively fueled vehicles combined to make up nearly half of all new registrations in Europe.
In all, customers in the European Union bought 1.1 million new EVs in the market in 2022, an increase of 28 percent over 2021. Thus, more than one in eight new vehicles registered in the EU last year was a fully electric vehicle, according to the European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association.
Similarly, sales of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles were also strong in 2022. Although plug-in hybrids weren’t as popular as EVs, Europeans still bought 874,182 new PHEVs last year, which was 1.2 percent more than they purchased in 2021, and gave the segment 9.4 percent of the overall market.
Read: German Politician Calls On Tesla To Speed Up Production To Meet Demand After Price Cuts
Simple hybrid vehicles remained the most popular alternative-fuel vehicle in the European Union, with customers registering more than 2 million of the vehicles last year. This means that one in every 4.5 vehicles sold in the EU in 2022 was a hybrid.
All of which helped contribute to the shrinking market share of diesel and gas-powered vehicles. Although they remained the most popular segment, gas vehicles went from controlling 35.5 percent of the European market in 2021, to just 32.5 percent in 2022.
Diesel vehicles, too, struggled in 2022. Their overall sales were down nearly 20 percent last year, meaning that they were outsold by hybrid vehicles. In terms of market share, diesels captured just 16.4 percent of all new vehicle registrations in 2022.
The latest in a trend of shrinking gas and diesel vehicles sales, in 2021, they made up nearly 60 percent of sales in Europe. In 2022, that figure fell to nearly 53 percent of all new vehicle registrations. In the fourth quarter of 2022, though, gas and diesel vehicles accounted for less than half of all new registrations, with alternative fuel vehicles combining for 53 percent of all sales, pointing to a growing appetite in the market for electrified vehicles.
