New car registrations in July alone totalled 851,156 units, with growth in most of the major markets including an increase of 19.9% in France, 18.1% in Germany, 10.7% in Spain and 8.7% in Italy.
For the year so far, registrations were up by 17.6% to 6.3 million units. However, despite continuous growth, January-July volumes remain 22% down on the same period of pre-pandemic 2019.
Growth for the seven-month period was 21.9% in Spain, 20.9% in Italy, 15.8% in France and 13.6% in Germany.
The market share of battery-electric cars was up to 13.6% in July 2023 from 9.8% in July 2022, up by 60.6% to 115,971 units. Growth was 68.9% in Germany, 32.5% in France and an impressive 235.9% in Belgium. Battery-electric car sales were up by 54.7% in the year-to-date to 819,725 units.
Hybrid-electric car registrations increased by 31.6% in July, with growth of 46.6% in Germany, 32.8% in Spain and 16.7% in Italy. For the year so far, growth was 28.5% to almost 1.6 million units.
EU plug-in hybrid car registrations were up by 14.5% in July to 67,060 units with performance strong in the Netherlands (up by 107.6%), France (up 80%) and Spain (up 42.7%), offset by a decline of 39.5% in Germany.
Petrol cars grew by 5% in July to 304,903 units, while market share fell from 35.8% to 39.2%. Growth was 16.4% in France and 12.5% in Germany. For January-July 2023, growth was 14.3% to more than 2.3 million units.
Finally, diesel cars declined by 9.1% in July despite growth of 2.7% in Germany, 36.1% in Slovakia and 19.8% in Romania. Market share for diesel cars stands at 14.1%, down from 17.9% in July 2022.
