Sales of electric cars almost doubled in Europe last year

The Tesla Model 3 is the world's best-selling electric car.

The Tesla Model 3 is the world's best-selling electric car.

Published Feb 7, 2020

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Rome - More than 290 000 electric cars were sold in the European Union last year, in a near doubling of 2018 figures, recently released industry data showed.

Sales rose year-on-year by 93.8 percent to 290 923 units, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said in a statement.

The Netherlands, with 67 695 sold, and Germany, with 63 491, were the biggest national markets for electric cars.

Although not the biggest market in terms of numbers, Norway boasts the biggest market share for electric vehicles, which accounted for 42.4 percent of all new car sales last year, and analysts say this could rise up to 60 percent in 2020. Norway's best seller at the moment is Tesla's Model 3 sedan.

ACEA also reported a near 50-percent increase in hybrid car sales, to 465 026 units, and a 13.9-percent increase for plug-in hybrids, to 174 103 units.

Alternatively powered vehicles - a definition that includes cars running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas - accounted for 10.7 per cent of the total EU car market in 2019, up from 7.5 per cent in 2018.

Meanwhile, sales of diesel cars slumped by 13.9 percent to 4.65 million units, and their market share declined by more than five percentage points to 30.5 per cent.

Petrol cars remained by far the most popular in the EU, with sales rising 5.2 per cent to 8,96 million units and a market share up by more than two percentage points to 58.9 per cent.

Dpa & Reuters

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