Electric cars still don’t register highly on the American sales charts, despite what the amount of coverage they get would suggest. Last year they amounted to only 7.6 percent of the market. But it’s a different story in Europe where EVs grabbed 12 percent of overall car sales in February, notching up a 9 percent rise in deliveries.
That sounds impressive at face value, but less so when you learn that the overall European car market grew by 10.1 percent to 883,608 units, according to ACEA figures. Which means EVs’ share of the market hasn’t grown at all compared with the same period in 2023 despite buyers having more electric cars to choose from than ever before. Although the number of EVs sold this February was bigger than in the same period last year (growing to 106,187) due to the general upswing in overall sales, EVs’ share fell from 12.1 percent to 12 percent (the Jan-Feb figures show a more positive growth from 10.8 to 11.5 percent).
The proportion of sales accounted for by petrol and diesel cars fell even more dramatically. The combined market share of petrol and diesel cars was 48.4 percent in February 2024, a decrease from 51.9 percent last year. Petrols’ share dwindled from 36.9 percent to 35.5 percent, although it remains the preferred power choice, while diesels snagged 12.9 percent of the pie, down from 15 percent. That’s the overall view, but it doesn’t necessarily show the differences visible at the micro level, like diesel sales in Germany growing by 9.7 percent.
Related: Global EV And PHEV Sales Surge 69% YoY, But Dive 26% From December High
So what has Europe been buying instead? Not gazillions of plug-in hybrids – they are proving popular in key markets like Germany, Belgium and France and their share across the whole EU bloc did increase, but only from 7.2 to 7.3 percent. No, it’s plain petrol hybrids that are the real winners here. Sales of those jumped by almost 25 percent to 255,511, and their share grew from 25.5 percent to 28.9 percent.
Automakers have drivers in France, Italy and Spain to thank for the overall growth in the car market last month. French drivers bought 13 percent more cars this February compared with last year, Italian car sales weren’t far behind, climbing 12.8 percent, while Spain’s jumped 9.9 percent.