Registrations of new diesel-fuelled passenger vehicles in the EU fell to 19.6% in 2021. Gasoline fell to a 40% market share, but fossil-fuelled vehicles still dominate even with rapid growth in alternatives, according to manufacturers’ body Acea.

Large percentage drops in new diesel sales were recorded in major markets: Spain (-27.4%), Poland (-28.1%), Italy (-28.6%), Germany (-36%) and France (-30.7%). The steepest falls were in Cyprus (-46.4%), Denmark (-46.5%) and the Netherlands (-46.6%). Acea recorded the largest fall in new diesel passenger vehicle registrations, of -48.1%, in non-EU UK.

Regarding alternative energy vehicles, new LPG-fuelled cars increased by 5.7% to 59,959, while new natural gas vehicles fell significantly in the last three months of 2021 (-45.9%), due to falling sales in Italy (-40.6%).

With an average age of EU cars at 11.8 years, changes in fuel types will take time to work through into vehicles in use. Last month, Acea said there were 246.3 million cars in the EU in 2020, up by 1.2% from 2019. Of these, gasoline (51.7%) and diesel (42.8%) dominate, followed by LPG vehicles (2.5%), BEV (0.5%), plugin hybrid (0.6%) and hybrid electric (0.5%). For more information, please check here.

16 February 2022