Paris (AFP)
Sales of electric vehicles have doubled and those of plug-in hybrids tripled in 2020, according to figures released Thursday by the Association of European Manufacturers (ACEA).
Some 538,772 electric cars were sold last year, notably in Germany, France and the Netherlands, and 507,059 plug-in hybrids, with a marked acceleration in the fourth quarter.
While the European market as a whole was cut by a quarter of its sales by the health crisis, sales of hybrid (including non-plug-in) and electric vehicles exceeded diesel sales in Europe for the first time in the fourth quarter , with more than 900,000 vehicles sold.
"After the unprecedented effect of Covid-19 on car sales, the measures taken by governments to stimulate demand have mainly been directed towards alternative energy cars, accelerating the demand for low-emission vehicles", emphasizes ACEA.
Germany, Italy and France have notably seen their electricity sales explode.
Electric cars have also eaten up the market share of gasoline-powered vehicles.
In the fourth quarter, sales of gasoline vehicles fell 33.7% to 1.2 million units (40.6% market share) and those of diesel vehicles fell 23% to 731,000 units (24.5% ).
Electric cars grew 216.9% to 248,000 units, plug-in hybrids 331% to 227,000 units, non-rechargeable hybrids 104.7% to 435,000 units, and other energies (LPG, E85), natural gas ), mainly sold in Italy, from 19.6% to 70,000 copies.
Over the whole of 2020, gasoline represented 47% of passenger car sales, diesel 28%, hybrids 11.9%, electric and plug-in hybrids 10.5%, and other energies 2.1% .
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