New car registrations: +13.7% in April 2024; battery electric 11.9% market share

In April 2024, the European Union car market grew by 13.7%, with new registrations totalling 913,995 units, driven by strong increases across all major markets: Spain (+23.1%), Germany (+19.8%), France (+10.9%), and Italy (+7.7%).

This growth can be partly explained by the fact that there were two extra sales days compared to the same month last year, when Easter holidays fell in April.

During the first four months of the year, new car registrations in the European Union increased by 6.6%, reaching nearly 3.7 million units. Solid growth was recorded in the region's largest markets over the period, with Germany and Spain each seeing a 7.8% increase, followed by France (+7%) and Italy (+6.1%).

New EU car registrations by power source

Last April, battery-electric cars maintained nearly 12% of the EU car market, while hybrid-electrics rose to 29.1% from 24.9%. The combined share of petrol and diesel vehicles dropped to less than half the market, at 48.9%, down from 52.8%.

Electric cars

In April 2024, battery-electric car registrations rose by 14.8% to 108,552 units, with their market share holding steady at around 12%. France and Belgium saw significant increases of 45.2% and 41.6%, respectively, while Germany remained stable (-0.2%). From January to April, a total of 441,992 new battery-electric cars were registered, marking a 6.4% increase from the previous year.

Hybrid-electric cars also saw robust growth, with registrations up 33.1% in April. The largest markets for this segment, France (+48.1%), Spain (+38.5%), Germany (+25.9%), and Italy (+22.8%), all recorded double-digit increases, with registrations totalling 265,992 units. This pushed the hybrid-electric market share to 29.1%, up from 24.9% in April 2023.

Plug-in hybrid car registrations saw a modest increase of 3.7% last month. While Belgium experienced a significant decline of 17.6% and France remained stable (-0.1%), Germany's strong performance, with a 28.4% increase, helped balance the segment. In April, plug-in hybrids accounted for 6.8% of the total car market, with 62,148 units sold.

Petrol and diesel cars

In April 2024, petrol car sales increased by 7.3% to 328,967, driven by double-digit gains in key markets such as Spain (+24.1%), Germany (+18.6%), and Italy (+14.1%). However, their market share declined from 38.1% to 36% compared to the same month the previous year. Meanwhile, the diesel car market remained steady at around 118,000 units, accounting for nearly 13% of the market. Despite substantial declines in major markets like Italy (-21.1%), Spain (-19.3%), and France (-18.1%), a significant increase in Germany (+28.2%) helped to offset these losses.

About ACEA

• The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) represents the 15 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Renault Group, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo Group
• Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA, and follow us on www.twitter.com/ACEA_auto or www.linkedin.com/company/ACEA/
• Contact: Francesca Piazza, Senior Statistics Manager, [email protected]

About the EU automobile industry

• 12.9 million Europeans work in the automotive sector
• 8.3% of all manufacturing jobs in the EU
• €392.2 billion in tax revenue for European governments
• €101.9 billion trade surplus for the European Union
• Over 7% of EU GDP generated by the auto industry
• €59.1 billion in R&D spending annually, 31% of EU total