In May 2024, car registrations in the European Union decreased by 3%, with drops in three out of the region’s four major markets: Italy (-6.6%), Germany (-4.3%), and France (-2.9%). Spain, posted slight growth of 3.4% last month.

Registrations of battery-electric (BEV) cars declined by 12% to 114,308. The total EV market share dropping to 12.5%. Belgium – now the third-largest market by volume for BEVs – and France were the only key markets to record growth, at 44.8% and 5.4%, respectively. Germany (-30.6%) and the Netherlands (-11.7%) had significant declines. From January to May, a total of 556,276 new battery-electric cars were registered. This is a 2% increase from the same period the previous year, according to the ACEA trade group.

“Plug-in hybrid car registrations also saw a decline of 14.7% last month, with significant decreases in two of the largest markets: Belgium (-36.6%) and France (-19.4%). Germany managed a modest increase of 1.7%, but this was not enough to offset the overall negative trend. In May, plug-in hybrids accounted for 6.5% of the total car market, with 59,333 units sold,” said ACEA.

However, hybrid-electric was the only segment growing, with car registrations increasing by 16.2% in May to more than 272,568. Three of the four largest markets for this segment – France (+38.3%), Spain (+25.4%), and Italy (+7.4%) posted gains. Germany declined -0.7%. The hybrid-electric market share ~ 30%, up from 25% in May 2023.