Electric and plug-in hybrids grow 66% in Europe and already represent one in five cars that were sold in 2021

For the first time, More than a million fully electric cars have been sold in Europe. Those are the data provided by the analyst Matthias Schmidt, who has also published that one in every 10 vehicles registered in our continent uses this technology. In other words, electric vehicles are not only sold more, they also gain market share.

Figures suggest that 1,190,000 fully electric vehicles were sold in 2021, receiving a substantial boost in the last month of the year. In December, 20% of the vehicles sold in Europe relied exclusively on electricity. All this has allowed the market share of these cars to reach 11.4%, far from the 6.7% market penetration of 2020.

Exclusive look into W-Europe’s 2021 full year electric car market

•1.2M new BEVs
•>11% mix of the total market
•Volumes +65% y/y in a total market that fell to a 37 year low
•1-in-5 new cars in W-Europe were plug-ins last year

Full data and trends each month in the study pic.twitter.com/MgxNEX2j5q

— Schmidt Automotive Research (@EuroEVReport) January 11, 2022

If to these numbers the plug-in hybrids (1.02 million sales) we obtain that the number of “zero emissions” vehicles rises to 2.21 million new registrations, which represents a growth of 66% compared to 2020 and a market share of 21%.

Some data that must be contextualized

Although the figures are striking, Matthias Schmidt also collects another really important data, total vehicle sales in Europe fell by 1.9% compared to 2020 and are almost four million fewer units than in 2019. This leaves the European market in total sales of 10.6 million registrations, a figure that had not been reached since 1984 when 10.2 million operations were registered.

With the semiconductor crisis hitting the automotive sector hard, manufacturers have preferred to prioritize self-registration of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids with the ultimate goal of reducing the volume of total emissions before the end of 2021. It is logical, therefore, that “zero emissions” sales would skyrocket in December and, in addition, gain market share. Up to 400,000 vehicles of the 1.19 million electric vehicles sold throughout the year were registered in the last quarter.

Although without losing sight of these figures, we must assess the progress of the electric car. Although the growth in its market share is given by very specific circumstances, the truth is that in a country like Spain, with important aid for the purchase of electric cars, this type of vehicle is hardly gaining market penetration. In 2021, 2.76% of sales were carried out by fully electric cars, a figure that remains very close to the 2.11% market share in 2020.