The number of electrified cars registered in Europe has overtaken diesel models for the first time.
According to data gathered by automotive analysis firm Jato Dynamics, September 2020 saw a record low for diesel – making up a mere 24.8 per cent of vehicle registrations as a whole – while electrified vehicles jumped from 11 per cent in September 2019 to 25 per cent in the same month this year. That means electrified cars accelerated past diesels.
By comparison, Jato points out just 10 years ago diesel made up 50 per cent of all sales, and electrified models held a market share below one per cent.
The rise of electrification hasn’t just cannibalised diesel sales, however. The market share of petrol-powered cars has also dropped year-on-year, down from 59 per cent of registrations in September 2019 to 47 per cent last month.
Felipe Munoz, global analyst at Jato Dynamics said: ‘The shift from ICEs to EVs is finally taking place. Although this is largely down to government policies and incentives, consumers are also now ready to adopt these new technologies.’
While the shift to electrification is the largest seen in Europe to date, it doesn’t mean consumers are abandoning cars with internal combustion engines altogether. The ‘electrified’ category includes not just fully electric cars, but plug-in hybrids, ‘self-charging’ hybrids and even ‘mild’ hybrid models.
In fact, these non-plug-in models made up 53 per cent of the total electrified vehicle figures seen here – helped by recently introduced mild hybrid versions of cars like the Ford Puma and Fiat 500.
So popular is the Puma that it finds itself as the second most registered hybrid on sale, with its 12,251 units beaten only by the Toyota Corolla, with the firm’s CH-R and Yaris in third and fourth place.
For plug-in hybrids, Mercedes has a narrow lead at first place with the A-Class and its 4,782 registrations, followed by the Volvo XC40 and Audi Q5. Impressively, the ageing (and soon to disappear from Europe) Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV manages to stay in fifth place, ahead of some much newer rivals.
In the fully electric category, Tesla’s Model 3 still leads the chart with 15,702 registered in September, closely followed by the Renault Zoe and Volkswagen ID.3 at 11,023 and 7,897 registrations respectively.
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