Registrations of electrified vehicles in Europe saw a record-breaking month in July, with an increase of 131% year on year to 230,700 units.
Electrified vehicles accounted for 18% of total registrations in July, far greater than their market share of 7.5% in July 2019, and 5.7% in July 2018. Half of these cars were powered by a hybrid engine (HEV), with demand soaring by 89%.
Plug- in hybrids (PHEV) followed with 55,800 units, an increase of 365% from July 2019. Battery electric cars (BEV) grew from 23,400 units in July 2019 to 53,200 this year.
According to a report from Bloomberg, European EV sales exceeded Chinese EV sales in the first half of 2020 for the first time since 2015. Europe’s CO2 regulations and new model launches from manufacturers supported the market during the pandemic, whilst Chinese EV sales fell 44% in the first half of the year.
Around 380,000 electric vehicles were sold over the 16 main European markets in the first six months of the year. Meanwhile, in China, which is generally considered the world’s largest market for such vehicles, sales dropped 44 per cent to around 330,000 models.
Some of the largest European markets, such as Germany and France, have made subsidies for electric vehicles a central part of their wider coronavirus recovery packages.
