The incentives given by governments in Europe to boost sales of locally emission-free cars have probably paid off.
In Europe, a good 745,000 purely battery-electric cars (BEV) were newly registered in 2020. According to figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ACEA, this is 107 percent more than in 2019. The number of newly registered plug-in hybrids (PHEV) rose from almost 200,000 to 620,000, while that of passenger cars with hybrid drives (HEV) rose from 960,000 1.45 million.
In its statistics, the ACEA counts the countries of the EU, the EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland as well as Great Britain. In these countries, new registrations of gasoline-powered cars fell by 37.6 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 to 5.75 million. The number of new diesel cars shrank by 35 percent to 3.1 million. The number of newly registered cars with alternative fuels such as ethanol, liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas also fell, namely by 18 percent to almost 210,000.
In absolute terms, Germany leads the 2020 ranking of newly registered BEVs with just under 195,000. In relation to the number of inhabitants, Norway is right at the front with a good 60,000 new BEV registrations. In the Scandinavian country, more than half of the new registrations in 2020 were BEV .
75.5 percent fossil
In 2020, HEV accounted for almost 12 percent of the entire European passenger car market, according to an ACEA statement . In 2019 it was just under 6 percent. The proportion of electrically chargeable cars rose from 3 to 10.5 percent. Fossil fueled cars still had a share of 75.5 percent in 2020, despite the 3 million fewer newly registered cars.
The ACEA attributes the boost for electrically powered cars to economic stimulus packages such as in Germany to cushion the slump in demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. These subsidies were mainly aimed at locally emission-free drives.
In the summer, the German federal government raised funding for purely battery-electric vehicles with a net list price of up to 40,000 euros from 3,000 to 6,000 euros. Plug-in hybrids are now funded by the federal government with 4500 euros. The manufacturers each give half the amount off the purchase price. More expensive e-cars are funded with 5,000 euros, plug-in hybrids with a price of more than 40,000 euros with 3750 euros. The added value effect of the premium is unclear, however .
