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BRUSSELS - Electric vehicles significantly increased their share of new registrations in the European Union (EU) over the past year, German Press Agency (dpa) reported, citing the European manufacturers' association ACEA on Thursday.
After eight months, 21.7 per cent of newly registered passenger cars were battery electric vehicles (BEVs), almost six percentage points more than a year earlier.
Overall, new passenger car registrations rose 5.3 per cent to 7.55 million vehicles, according to the Brussels-based association. Plug-in hybrids accounted for a 10th of the market.
In July, new passenger car registrations rose three per cent compared with the same month a year earlier and in August they rose 4.5 per cent.
However, expert Constantin M Gall from consultancy EY said the increase should not be seen only as a sign of a recovery in the car market.
"The upward trend in the European new car market is primarily due to subsidisation of e-mobility," Gall said. If these subsidies were to expire, sales of electric cars would also collapse, he said.
Chinese providers made strong gains from January to the end of August. Carmakers such as the Volkswagen group have been warning increasingly clearly about growing competition from the Far East on their home market.
The Geely group, which the ACEA association counts among others the brands Volvo, Polestar, and the joint venture Smart with Mercedes-Benz, had a stable share of the EU market, at 2.7 per cent.
However, BYD more than doubled its share of new cars from 0.9 per cent to 2.4 per cent. SAIC Motor rose from 1.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent, and Chery Automobile (brands Omoda, Jaecoo) went from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
Together with Leapmotor (0.8 per cent), these Chinese providers therefore reached a combined market share of 9.6 per cent. A year earlier it was only 6.2 per cent, according to ACEA. - BERNAMA
