The price of new cars is on the rise and so is the demand. Customers are looking for compact and fuel-efficient cars, especially hybrids. However, last month car sales in the EU dropped by 5.2 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

According to ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association), last month’s sales led to a change in the market structure, so electric cars now have a 13% market share (-0.9%), while hybrid cars recorded a growth of 4.6% (29 %). Gasoline and diesel cars still have a high market share of 47.8 percent, although they recorded a decline of 4%.

In March, 134,397 electric cars were sold on the EU market, which is 11.3 percent less than in 2023. The German market recorded the biggest drop of 28.9 percent, while demand for BEVs in Belgium and France increased (+23.8% / 10.9%).

When it comes to hybrids, France and Italy are one of the biggest markets for these cars, where demand grew by 29.6% (France) and 8.3% (Italy). This segment achieved sales of 299,426 units (29 percent of the market). Demand for plug-in hybrids dropped by 6.5% in March, with 73,029 PHEV vehicles sold. It should be noted that Belgium (-15.3%) and Germany (-4.5%) had the worst results. France is one of the few countries that managed to achieve sales growth (3.6%).

Diesel and gasoline cars had the worst results. Sales of gasoline cars fell by 10.2%, the most in France (-17.7%), Spain (-10.1%) and Germany (-3.4%), while Italy was the only one to record growth (5.7%). Also, diesel cars had a drop in demand of 18.5%, mostly in France (-32.1%), Spain (-38%) and Italy (-27.6%), while in Germany demand fell by 0.5%.

Source: ACEA