The European car market enjoyed its 12th consecutive month of growth in July, topping 851,000 registrations, as diesel cars regained the upper hand over electric car sales, the manufacturers' association (ACEA) announced on Wednesday.
A total of 851,156 units were sold in the EU last month, up 15.2% year-on-year, with clear growth in the four biggest markets: +19.9% in France, +18.1% in Germany, +10.7% in Spain and +8.7% in Italy.
For the first seven months of the year, the increase was 17.6%, with 6.3 million new cars sold – a figure that is nevertheless 22% lower than this period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The automotive industry is however showing "signs of recovery from the supply disruptions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic," ACEA noted in a statement.
The European automotive market has returned to sustained growth since August 2022, when the health crisis, combined with a shortage of parts including crucial electronic components, had dealt it a very severe blow.
Despite a meteoric 60.6% growth to 115,971 units in July, electric car sales account for 13.6% of the market, behind petrol (35.8%) and diesel (14.1%), having overtaken the latter for the first time in history in June. Belgium recorded the biggest increase (+235.9%) in electric registrations in Europe in July, rising from 2,004 registrations in July 2022 to 6,731 last month.
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Between January and July, some 2.3 million petrol cars were sold in the EU (+14% year-on-year), compared with 910.000 diesels (-3%) and 820,000 electrics (+55%). Hybrids reached 1.6 million sales over this period (+29%), and plug-in hybrids, which can be plugged into a socket or a charging point, 468,000 units (+2%).
As for brands and manufacturers, Tesla saw the strongest growth in July, with almost 14.000 cars (+650%), though still a long way behind the behemoths Volkswagen (233,000 units, +18%)) and Stellantis (144,000 sales, -6.1%). The Renault group, meanwhile, saw its sales climb by 17%, to 90,000 registrations.
