New EU registrations: hybrid share increases to 25 percent

In the EU, the market share of alternative drive systems is growing: every fourth car sold since the beginning of the year was a hybrid vehicle. Sales of diesel cars, on the other hand, collapsed.

The trend is clear: the sales figures for cars with so-called alternative drive systems continue to rise steeply. In the first three months of this year, almost 565,000 hybrid vehicles were newly registered in the European Union. That is 5.3 percent more than in the first three months of last year. This means that every fourth car sold in the EU is now a hybrid, according to the European industry association ACEA.

Slight decline in plug-in hybrids

The sales figures for the so-called plug-in hybrids are slightly declining. According to the new ACEA statistics, battery-powered cars are particularly popular. Here the plus is 53 percent. 225,000 vehicles sold across Europe mean a market share of ten percent. That is about twice as much as in the first quarter of 2021. Interest is particularly high in Spain, France and Germany.

On the other hand, cars with traditional combustion engines are still going down. The slump in diesel vehicles is particularly severe. Their market share slipped to almost 17 percent. Gasoline engines have also lost ground. Their share of sales fell to 36 percent. This means that only every second car sold in the EU is a combustion engine.