Europe New Car Registrations Rise Further Amid Massive EV Sales Growth

(RTTNews) - The European car market continued to log double-digit sales growth in July amid the rising demand for battery electric vehicles, after component shortages damped sales in the same month last year, data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA, showed on Wednesday.

New car registrations advanced 15.2 percent on a yearly basis in July, following a 17.8 percent gain in June. Sales volume increased for the twelfth straight month.

The number of units sold totaled 851,156 in July versus 739,135 units in the corresponding month last year.

Among the four major markets, France logged the biggest growth in sales by 19.9 percent, closely followed by Germany with an 18.1 percent surge.

The car market in Spain also showed a strong increase of 10.7 percent and an 8.7 percent rise was seen in Italy.

Battery electric car registrations logged a further massive annual growth of 60.6 percent to reach 115,971 units in July, equaling the market share of 13.6 percent.

In July, hybrid electric cars also retained strong growth momentum, rising by 31.6 percent to 217,530 units.

Hybrid-electric cars maintained their position as the second choice among new car buyers, capturing over a quarter of the market.

Nonetheless, internal combustion engine cars, including petrol and diesel models, retained a combined market share of half of new car sales.

Although the EU petrol car market grew by 5 percent over the year, market share decreased from 39.3 percent to 35.8 percent.

At the same time, the market for diesel cars continued to show a downward trend in July, falling 9.1 percent despite 2.7 percent growth witnessed in Germany.

During the January-July period, total car registrations grew 17.6 percent to 6.3 million units.

Despite indications of the European automotive industry's recovery from the pandemic-related supply disruptions, year-to-date volumes are still 22 percent lower than in 2019, the ACEA said.