Sales of electric and hybrid cars in the European Union exceeded 1 million units in 2020
According to the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA), sales of electric and hybrid vehicles in the European Union almost tripled last year to more than 1 million vehicles. Thus, the volume of sales of such cars amounted to more than 10% of the total number of vehicles sold in 2020 in the region.
The strong growth in sales shows that electrified vehicles are becoming more popular after years of being a niche segment of the market. It is also noteworthy that the surge in popularity occurred at a time when total car sales in the European Union fell by 24% due to restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Data released by ACEA show that 1.046 million electric and hybrid vehicles were sold in the EU over the past year, while at the end of 2019 this figure was 387 808 vehicles. Sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were reported to have increased 59%. At the same time, the level of sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles fell by 37% and 32%, respectively. All-electric vehicle sales more than doubled from 247,854 units in 2019 to 538,772 units in 2020. Despite this, the share of gasoline vehicles in the total number of vehicles sold in the EU is still 48%.
