Hybrid car sales in the EU surged by 24.4% in February to close in on petrol car sales, while electric car sales flattened, data from European industry body the ACEA has revealed.
This month-on-month growth for hybrids was driven by big gains in the key markets of France (up 41.5%), Spain (26.5%), Germany (16.4%) and Italy (16.1%), which collectively accounted for more than 70% of total hybrid sales (255,511).
This pushed hybrids’ market share to 28.9%, second only to petrols (35.5%, with 313,681 cars sold in February).
The bloc's most popular powertrain recorded a year-on-year increase of 6.1%, notably in Italy (up 33.4%), although its overall market share receded 1.4%.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) also recorded sales growth, up 11.6% to 64,351 for a 4.3% market share. This was driven mostly by Germany (up 22.3%) and Belgium (21.8%).
Demand for EVs wasn’t as healthy, with sales increasing just 9% on February 2023 to 106,187. This was largely down to a 15.4% drop in Germany.
Positives came from double-digit gains in Belgium (up 66.9%), France (31.8%) and the Netherlands (20.9%). This meant the powertrain retained its 12% market share from February 2023.
Diesel recorded an unsurprising decline, its share retracting by 5.1% to 12.9% (113,891 sales). This was driven by drops in France (down 30.5%), Spain (17.4%) and Italy (11.8%), although sales in Germany – still a key market for the powertrain – rose 9.7%.
Overall, the EU recorded 883,608 car sales in February, up 11.2% month on month, taking it to 1.7 million registrations so far this year.
Volkswagen was the biggest-selling brand, with 86,449 sales in February, followed by Toyota (64,709), Peugeot (54,149) and Skoda (52,639).
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