Monthly sales reached 198,000, and the European electric vehicle market ushered in spring

Affected by the epidemic, residents' travel frequency has decreased, resulting in a decline in car demand. Data shows that the size of the European car market shrank by 24% in 2020, but the demand for electric vehicles has surged. In December last year , the sales of electric vehicles in six European countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Italy, reached 198,000 units, a year-on-year increase of nearly 4 times!

The European electric vehicle market has a bright future

" Once car retailers switch their lines to electric cars , consumers will buy more clean cars ," said Eric Esperance, an analyst at Roland Berger consultancy . " From 2023 , their prices will be in line with gasoline cars and subsidies will no longer be needed. "

Accordingly, automakers are shifting toward electric and hybrid vehicles in order to bring average vehicle emissions below the EU's limit of 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer , otherwise they will face severe fines.

According to data from the European Automobile Association ( ACEA ), the entire group sold approximately 540,000 electric vehicles in 2020, an increase of 117% over 2019. Among them, sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles more than doubled, from 140,000 to 510,000.

In terms of models, France's Renault has a strong market position in France and Germany , with sales of 100,000 vehicles last year . Tesla's Model 3 ranked second with sales of about 86,000 vehicles , while Volkswagen's ID3 ranked third with sales of nearly 56,000.

In stark contrast, sales of petrol and diesel cars fell sharply , which was caused by the epidemic blockade and travel restrictions . Among them, diesel cars fell by 32% year-on-year to 2.8 million , while petrol cars performed even worse, falling by 37 % to 4.7 million.

Government relief funds stimulate residents to buy electric vehicles

However, the European Commission believes that this is not because the epidemic has strengthened consumers' environmental awareness, but because the epidemic relief funds distributed by various countries have stimulated people to start buying electric vehicles. This trend is particularly evident in the wealthier regions of western Europe.

In the first three months of 2020, 98% of Europe's overall electric vehicle sales came mainly from the 14 economically developed EU countries , as well as non-member countries such as the United Kingdom and Norway .

Data shows that the number of electric vehicle registrations in the UK increased by nearly 190% in 2020. The reason for the sharp increase in electric vehicle sales is that the British government announced a ban on the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles from 2030, and electric vehicles are more in line with the travel habits of the British. It is reported that most British people travel within 30 kilometers, and electric vehicles only cost 1.2 pence per kilometer, which has lower operating costs.

The German government has also launched a 4.18 billion euro electric vehicle subsidy plan, and pure electric vehicle retailers can receive a maximum subsidy of nearly 10,000 euros per vehicle. The top five electric vehicle sales in the German market in 2020 were Volkswagen, Renault, Tesla, Daimler Smart and Hyundai .

In addition, in June 2020, the market share of electric vehicles in Sweden reached 26%, and in Germany and France it reached 9%. In Italy and Spain, the share of electric vehicles was only 3%, and in Poland it was only 1%.

The aviation industry is therefore hoping that the European Commission will help countries better implement incentive schemes, which could help narrow the gap in electric vehicles between different countries . Currently, 26 of the 27 EU countries have incentives to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.

ACEA also said that as the epidemic is effectively controlled, sales of electric vehicles will continue to increase, and its share of the European market is expected to rebound by 10% in 2021 .

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