In August, the demand for cars in the European Union was the lowest for the last three years, and sales of electric cars fell by 44%. This is according to data from the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).
Statistics showed that sales of electric cars fell for the fourth month in a row, Reuters notes. This prompted the European Automobile Manufacturers Association to call for urgent action to prevent further decline.
The number of new car registrations in the EU fell sharply last month (-18.3%). At the same time, negative results were observed in the four main markets in the region: in Germany (-27.8%), France (-24.3%) and Italy (-13.4%), and the Spanish market decreased by 6.5 %.
At the same time, the number of electric vehicle (BEV) registrations fell by 43.9% in August to 92,627 units (vs. 165,204 in the same period last year), and their overall market share fell to 14 .4% from 21% a year earlier.
In ACEA, they explain this with an "impressive drop" in the two largest electric car markets: Germany (-68.8%) and France (-33.1%). For the eight months of 2024, 902,011 new electric vehicles were registered in the EU, which is 12.6% of the market.
Sales of the three largest car manufacturers in Europe - Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault - decreased compared to last year by 14.8%, 29.5% and 13.9% respectively.
The only type of vehicle that showed growth in August was hybrids. The number of their registrations increased by 6.6% - up to 201,552. Hybrid-electric vehicle market share reached 31.3% versus 24% in August 2023.