ACEA: "Solid growth" in EU registrations, combustion engines below 50 percent
New car registrations rose by 13.7% in April 2024 in Europe, with electric cars accounting for 11.9% of the market, according to European Manufacturers.
Fiat Topolino small electric car
(Image: Stellantis)
In April 2024, the car market in the European Union grew by 13.7 percent with new registrations totaling 913,995 units, driven by strong growth in all major markets: Spain with 23.1 percent more, Germany with an increase of 19.8 percent, France (+ 10.9) and Italy (+ 7.7 percent). The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) partly explains this growth by the fact that there were two additional sales days in April compared to the same month last year due to the Easter holidays. In the first four months of the year, new car registrations in the EU rose by 6.6 percent to almost 3.7 million. Germany and Spain both recorded growth of 7.8 percent, followed by France with seven percent and Italy with an increase of 6.1 percent. The ACEA speaks of "solid growth".
In April 2024, battery electric cars accounted for almost 12 percent across the EU, while the share of hybrid cars improved from 24.9 to 29.1 percent. New registrations of cars with exclusively petrol and diesel engines fell from 52.8 to 48.9 percent. For the first time, their share of the overall market is therefore less than half.
Electric cars are improving
In April 2024, registrations of battery electric cars rose by 14.8 percent to 108,552 units. The market share is stable at around 12 percent. France and Belgium recorded significant growth of 45.2 and 41.6 percent respectively, while Germany stagnated at minus 0.2 percent. From January to April, a total of 441,992 battery-electric cars were newly registered, an increase of 6.4 percent compared to the previous year.
(Image: ACEA)
Hybrids make gains
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(Image: ACEA)
Cars with petrol and diesel engines are losing ground - except in Germany
In April 2024, sales of cars with petrol engines rose by 7.3 percent to 328,967, driven by double-digit growth in the key markets of Spain with 24.1 percent more, Germany with 18.6 percent growth and Italy with an increase of 14.1 percent. However, their market share fell from 38.1 to 36 percent compared to the same month last year. At around 118,000 units, the diesel passenger car market remained stable at almost 13 percent of the market. Despite considerable declines in important markets such as Italy with minus 21.1 percent, Spain with minus 19.3 and France with 18.1 percent fewer registrations, a significant increase of 28.2 percent in Germany helped to compensate for these losses.
(fpi)