Hybrid and electric cars outsell diesels in Europe

New figures, from automotive data analyst Jato Dynamics, has shown that vehicles with an electrified powertrain outsold diesel models in Europe for the first time last month.

The data shows that a total of 1.3 million new cars were registered in Europe in September, with 327,800 of those being electrified and around 322,400 being diesel. In comparison, petrol cars made up 47 per cent of the market, although this is down from 59 per cent in September 2019.

Electric vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and mild hybrids comprised roughly 25.2 per cent of September’s European registration figures. The figures reveal that 53 per cent of European registrations last month were hybrid or mild hybrid cars, with 69 per cent of all Ford Puma sales, and 59 per cent of Fiat 500 registrations, being mild hybrid variants.

Pure electric car demand was led by Tesla, although its volume fell by five per cent, while its closes rivals such as Volkswagen and Renault saw increases of 352 per cent and 211 per cent respectively. However, Jato looked across all car makers and stated that Volkswagen Group is now Europe’s top-selling BEV maker, ahead of Tesla. In September, Mercedes-Benz was the leader in the plug-in hybrid segment with 22 per cent market share, followed by Volvo and BMW.