121% increase in electrified vehicle sales in Europe this August

There were 188,700 electrified vehicles bought in Europe this August, an increase of 121% compared to August 2019, according to JATO data.

This represents 21.4% of total registrations, which is a new record for the industry.

Hybrids accounted for 49% of EV total registrations in August, with their volume increasing by 86% thanks to the mild-hybrid technology available in some Ford, Suzuki and Fiat models.

Pure electric cars followed this success, with 48,800 units, an increase of 111%. Growth was driven by Renault (+112%), Hyundai (+107%), Volkswagen (+97%) and Kia (+397%), with Tesla only growing by 11%. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) found 44,700 new customers, with registrations up by 283%. This huge increase amounted from the success of premium brands, accounting for 55% of their volume, and the new Ford Kuga.

August was not a strong month for European new car registrations. Overall, volume fell by 18% year-on-year last month, indicating that the positive trend seen since May – when lockdown began to ease across Europe – has been halted.

The 18% drop comes in heavy contrast to the 4% decrease posted by the market when comparing July 2020 and July 2019. In fact, the large decline in August is closer to the 24% decrease witnessed between June 2020 and June 2019. In total, the market registered 881,897 new passenger cars last month, the lowest number recorded for August since 2016. Year-to-date figures show a similarly downbeat picture, with 7,247,341 new cars registered, down by 33% from 2019 and the lowest result over the last decade.

Felipe Munoz, global analyst at JATO Dynamics, commented: “We continue to say that it is still too early to talk about recovery and the results last month indicate that there are still big issues that need to be addressed in the industry. Fortunately, the larger drop seen in August was mostly caused by business/fleet registrations, as private registrations only fell by 4%. This is a good indicator that the situation is not as dire as it might seem.”