Fuel types of new cars: battery electric 9.1%, hybrid 19.6% and petrol 40.0% market share full-year 2021
Brussels, 2 February 2022 – Overall in 2021, hybrid electric vehicles accounted for 19.6% of all new passenger cars registered across the EU, compared to 11.9% in 2020. Electrically-chargeable vehicles also saw a strong increase in sales, making up 18.0% of total car registrations, up from a 10.5% share in 2020.
At the same time, the overall contraction of the EU car market affected both diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles negatively. Nevertheless, conventional fuel types still dominated EU car sales in terms of market share in 2021, accounting for 59.6% of all new registrations.
Petrol and diesel cars
From October to December 2021, registrations of both petrol and diesel cars posted double-digit drops in the European Union. Sales of petrol fell by 33.5% to 778,450 units, with nearly all EU markets recording declines, except for Bulgaria, Ireland and Slovenia. Consequently, petrol’s share of the car market shrank from 40.6% in the last quarter of 2020 to 35.8% during the same period in 2021.
Alternatively-powered vehicles (APV)
During the last quarter of 2021, battery electric vehicles (BEV) saw the strongest growth (+24.9%) of all fuel types, totalling 309,598 units across the EU. This growth was rather modest compared to 2020, but it should be noted that 2020’s surge in BEVs (+216.9%) was largely driven by government stimuli for low- and zero-emission vehicles introduced in the wake of the pandemic. Sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), on the other hand, contracted by 1.8% in the fourth quarter.
Looking at full-year results, PHEV registrations increased by 70.7% from 507,917 units in 2020 to 867,092 last year. Battery electric vehicles posted similar growth (+63.1%) throughout 2021, going from 538,734 to 878,432 cars sold.
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) recorded a modest increase (+0.4%) in the last three months of the year. With 439,172 units sold, hybrids accounted for 20.2% of the EU car market in the fourth quarter. Throughout 2021, registrations of hybrid electric cars increased by an impressive 60.5%, marking the first time that HEV sales (with 1,901,239 units) overtook those of diesel (1,901,191) in the European Union.
Demand for natural gas vehicles (NGV) in the EU saw a significant drop during the last three months of 2021 (-45.9%), mainly the result of falling sales in Italy (-40.6%). By contrast, the market for LPG-fuelled cars saw a modest increase of 5.7%, counting 59,959 units sold across the region during the same period.
Alternatively-powered vehicles (APV) accounted for almost half (47.8%) of the EU car market from October to December 2021, with over a million units registered in total. Looking at the performance of the major BEV markets in the last quarter, France posted the largest gain (+36.2%), followed by Italy (+34.9%) and Germany (+24.5%).
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About ACEA
- The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) represents the 16 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Renault Group, Stellantis, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Cars, and Volvo Group.
- Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA, and follow us on www.twitter.com/ACEA_auto or www.linkedin.com/company/ACEA/.
- Contact: Francesca Piazza, Statistics Manager, fp@acea.auto.
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About the EU automobile industry
- 12.7 million Europeans work in the auto industry (directly and indirectly), accounting for 6.6% of all EU jobs.
- 11.5% of EU manufacturing jobs – some 3.5 million – are in the automotive sector.
- Motor vehicles are responsible for €398.4 billion of tax revenue for governments across key European markets.
- The automobile industry generates a trade surplus of €76.3 billion for the EU.
- The turnover generated by the auto industry represents more than 8% of the EU’s GDP.
- Investing €58.8 billion in R&D annually, the automotive sector is Europe’s largest private contributor to innovation, accounting for 32% of total EU spending.