“LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - New car sales in the European Union rose 14.6% in October, boosted in part by a big jump in sales of fully electric cars, while hybrid electric vehicles accounted for nearly three of every 10 vehicles sold in the economic bloc. Sales of fully electric cars rose 36.3% from a year earlier and full hybrid sales were up nearly 39% as the EU recorded its 15th consecutive month of sales growth, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday. The ACEA said fully electric cars made up 14.2% of sales in October, overtaking sales of diesel cars for the third time.”
“For the ten months through October, sales of fully electric cars were up 53.1%. Electrified vehicles - either fully electric models, plug-in hybrids or full hybrids - accounted for over 47% of all new passenger car registrations in the EU between January and October 2023, up from 42% in the same period last year, the ACEA said.”
Submitter note: the article has a graph, but I think it is worth noting here that Jan-Oct BEV sales in 2022 were 10.7% of all cars, and in 2023 BEV sales accounted for 14.0% of all cars. Jan-Oct PHEV sales in 2022 were 8.8%, and in 2023 they were 7.6%. It is also worth noting that from 2022 to 2023 many manufactuers have seen decreased market share (Stellantis, Hyundai/KIA, Toyota, Mercedes, Ford) of anywhere from ~0.2 to ~1.8 percent while VW Group and Telsa have seen increased market share of about the same amount lost by Stellantis et al, with Tesla’s gains in market share being the most significant (from 1.0% to 2.5%).
I think that’s not quite right, although they did take a big chunk - looks like Hyundai and Stellantis’ losses alone more than offset Tesla and VW:
Tesla + VW = 2.2% gain in market share
Hyundai + Stellantis = 2.9% loss in market share. (Stellantis alone had a 1.9% loss, almost offsetting it alone, with much of that loss spread evenly across Peugeot, Fiat, Opel/Vauxhall & Citroen).
Note: This doesn’t mean Stellantis lost sales to Tesla & VW (although it’s likely they did lose some to them), just pointing out that there were a lot of movements across the market. More likely BEV heavy brands gained market share from more premium/luxury offerings across the market, since those are the price points where they compete).
Other big movers were:
Mercedes with a 0.7% loss (a bigger issue for them, since they didn’t have a huge amount of market share to begin with)
and Renault with a 1% gain - contrary to a lot of narratives about how they’re faring, and a strong result. Surprised Toyota only dropped 0.3% considering their supply issues this year and the growth they’ve had over the past decade in EU off the back of hybrids, I suspect strong sales .
And diesel continues its collapse - now down to just 12%. If you’re struggling to get a VAG EV overseas, this is a big reason why IMO - just a few years ago in 2019, approx. 1 in 2 VAG cars were diesels.
Also interesting that once again, the shorter term data points to the same slowdown we’re seeing from every other source - and the same people in this thread can’t get their heads around YoY vs MoM statistics.
4.3% gain YoY for October points to a slower than expected ramp - ie a slowdown in growth. It’s similar to other stories about low growth for October for BEVs, regardless of the the market. Germany’s the biggest EV market in the EU (hence why it’s singled out), and so serves as something of a litmus test. Hybrids, on the other hand, surged 57% for the month YoY in Germany.
I expect that growth will increase in December - always a good car buying month - but whether it recovers enough to offset what is becoming continuing slower than expected growth remains to be seen.
Sadly there’s no breakdown in ACEA’s data for wholesale/fleet vs retail, which is where the other story is - BEVs commanding a large disparity in favour of fleets vs the broader market.