EVs and plug-in hybrids sales spurt in the European markets

Although the popularity of electric vehicles has grown, new car sales overall have decreased due to a global chips shortage

The sale of electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrids have outnumbered the diesel-run cars in Europe in the last month, portraying an increasing trend of adopting cars that run on clean fuel.

Though the popularity of EVs and hybrid plug-in cars have increased, the continued global shortage of chips has led to the downfall of overall sales of new cars.

EV’s growing popularity

According to the London-based motoring business intelligence firm called Jato Dynamics, Tesla, Renault Zoe, and Dacia Spring seem to be more popular among motorists. The findings are based on the data analysed from around 25 markets in Europe.

“If you want a new car in this current environment, the chances are that EVs are going to be more accessible given the range of offers and incentives available. However, the sales of petrol cars were over double of the EVs and hybrids,” Jato global analyst Felipe Munoz said.

In November, Europe witnessed registrations of 217,709 units of lower emissions’ cars. It accounted for 26% of the total. It was more than diesel cars, which had 18%.

But the overall registration of cars failed in November, the lowest in three decades for the same month. The registration numbers were down by 18% on year and 29% less when compared to November 2019.

“Although the market has not recovered entirely from the pandemic, the current problem does not relate to a lack of demand, but rather a lack of supply,” Munoz said.

Spurt in popularity is not going to stay

Most analysts have said that the spurt in sales of EVs in Western Europe will soon fade away due to the global shortage of chips. It will be also affected by the internal combustion engine (ICE) makers attempt to push ICE cars before European Union destroys their profit margin completely.

Tesla will maintain its position in BEV sales and profitability and will only face threats from the best of traditional manufacturers like VW and Mercedes. The Chinese carmakers who have attempted to enter the European markets with the traditional ICE cars will face challenges from EVs.

Western Europe includes the big markets of Germany, Italy, Britain, Spain, and France. Germany has already announced that there are now one million BEVs on German roads. BMW has announced plans to reach two million BEVs sold by 2025.

However, China controls the majority of the battery supply chain in BEVs. Thus in the last few years, prices of BEVs in China have halved. In Europe, BEVs have become costlier.