Electric and hybrid cars continued to drive the EU car market in May, with new passenger car registrations up 3.2% year on year to 955,013 vehicles, the European industry association ACEA said in Brussels.
Sales of pure internal combustion vehicles fell by around a fifth to 210,383 petrol cars and 69,482 diesel cars while sales of fully electric battery electric vehicles (BEVs) rose by around 43% to 203,417 units. Hybrid car sales also increased, according to the figures released on Tuesday.
In Germany, car sales in May grew by only 0.1% overall, while the increase was significantly higher in France at 3.7% and in Italy at 7.6%. In Spain, new registrations fell by 0.8%.
Volkswagen remained the clear market leader across the European Union but saw a sales decline of 3.6% to 254,011 cars. Stellantis, the parent group of Fiat, Peugeot and Opel, recorded a 2.6% drop as number two and third-placed Renault slipped by 1.3%. The BMW Group, by contrast, posted an increase of 3.7% and Mercedes-Benz was up 0.7%.
Overall, new passenger car registrations in the first five months of the year rose by 4% to around 4.75 million vehicles. The market share of pure battery electric cars climbed from 15.3% to 20%.
Chinese brands make big gains
Chinese providers such as Chery, BYD and Leapmotor are currently making significant strides. The market shares of Chinese providers in the first five months remain manageable, at up to 2.6% for Geely (Volvo, Polestar) and 2.1% each for SAIC Motor (MG brand) and BYD. However, BYD's share more than doubled on an annual basis.
US electric car pioneer Tesla recovered from its sales slump in the previous year and reached a market share of 1.9% from January to May.
