Photo: Mark Lawson (Unsplash)

According to a report from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), sales of traditional fuel cars continued to decrease in the European Union during the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period of the previous year.

From January to March 2021, diesel volumes fell 20.1% compared to 2020 to reach 593,559 cars sold across the European Union. Diesel now holds a market share of 23.2%, down from 29.9% in the first quarter of 2020. Most EU markets posted double-digit declines in this segment, including three of the four major ones: Germany (-29.4%), Spain (-28.3%) and France (-11.1%).

Similarly, demand for petrol cars continued its downward trend, with sales decreasing by 16.9% from 1.3 million units sold in Q1 2020 to 1.1 million so far this year. As a result, petrol’s share of the EU car market shrank from 52.3% in the first quarter of 2020 to 42.2% during the same period in 2021. With the exception of France (+8.3%), registrations of petrol cars fell in all major EU markets during the three-month period: Germany (-30.0%), Spain (-25.7%) and Italy (-4.8%).

On the hand, during the first quarter of the year, most types of alternatively powered vehicles increased their market share. While hybrid electric vehicles remained the largest volume category of alternative fuel passenger cars in the EU, sales of Autogas cars almost doubled (+92.7%) to reach 46,037 units, boosted by remarkable gains in France (+1,748.6%; now the second largest EU market for LPG cars) and Italy (+23.9%), which accounted for more than half of total LPG sales. For more information, please check this link.

26 May 2021