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Total European new car registrations continued to increase in June, but remain paltry compared to pre-pandemic levels. There were 1,268,683 new passenger cars registered last month – an increase of 13% when compared with June 2020. Despite this increase, the market’s rate of recovery has slowed substantially relative to the growth recorded between March and May of this year as the botched EU rollout of covid vaccines continue to result in a very sick economy.
Notably, low emissions cars (BEV and PHEV) continued to perform well, recording a new record total market share of 18.5% – up from 8.2% in June 2020. Registrations of BEVs totaled 126,000 units during the month, ahead of the 104,000 registered PHEV units. Yes that’s right pure EVs out sold hybrids, which were at the center automakers plans to fight emissions and global warming. Fiat, Tesla, Skoda, Volkswagen and Ford gained the largest market share in the BEV market while Cupra, Jeep, Volkswagen, Renault and Seat posted the highest market share gains in the PHEV market.
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Since the beginning of 2021, the European new car market rebounded. However the ongoing impact of the pandemic continues to negatively affect sales. The ~1.27 million units registered in June, still lags behind the 1.47 million units registered in 2019, and the 1.6 million units registered in 2018.
“The conditions are not yet ideal and far from a total recovery. In the mid-term, It is not clear whether the market will reach pre-Covid levels or not,” said Felipe Munoz, Global Analyst at JATO Dynamics. The volume for the first half of 2021 totaled 6.41 million units, up by 27% year-on-year from 2020, but 23% lower than in H1 2019.
The increasing popularity of cleaner vehicles is also having an impact on the sales mix for brands. Specifically, Jeep’s new plug-in models accounted for 30% of its total volume in June, compared with 0.5% in June 2020. Cupra’s sales of low emissions vehicles jumped from 0% in June 2020 to 58% last month, while BEV and PHEV models made up 72% of MG’s total volume.
The Volkswagen Golf was the most popular new car model with consumers at 27,247 units, or a 2.15% market share. Despite the increase of 12% from June 2020, volume fell by 27% when compared with June 2019 – when its market share was at 2.52%.
The Golf was followed by the Tesla Model 3, which registered 25,697 units taking the year-to-date total to 66,350 units, making it the most popular electric vehicle in Europe, and the 25th best-selling model in the general rankings through to June. The Model 3 was the top-seller in Austria, Norway, Switzerland and the UK, and hit the top 10 in Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden.
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Other models that posted notable growth compared to June 2019 were the Fiat 500, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen T-Roc, Peugeot 2008, Volkswagen T-Cross, Hyundai Tucson, Audi A3, Toyota C-HR, Hyundai Kona, BMW 3-Series and Volvo XC40. Among the latest launches, Opel registered 7,741 units of the Mokka; 7,353 units of the Citroen C4; Volkswagen registered 7,040 units of the ID.3 and 6,347 units of the ID.4; the Skoda Enyaq found 6,011 new clients, while Cupra registered 5,967 units of the Formentor. The Renault Arkana registered 4,766 units, and the Ford Mach-E registered 3,002 units.
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