New European figures: More electric cars were sold than diesel cars last year

The best-selling electric cars in Germany: we look at them specifically number New electric cars sold in Europe last year, Germany comes in first with approximately 524,219 electric cars, which is equivalent to a quarter of the entire market in the region. Photo: Jamison Buthikari/elbil.no

Norway is of course still in the lead in Europe, but among EU countries Sweden is now in the lead.

01/18/2024 15:51 | Updated 16:14

Automotive industry organization ACEA today published a report Summary of sales statistics For last year in Europe, but it also looked specifically at December numbers.

Electric vehicle sales rose by 37 percent

There are many interesting details here when you look closely at the numbers.

When we look at 2023 as a whole, we see, among other things:

This is a new record for electric cars, as the share of electric cars reached 14.6 percent in new car sales.
There is still only a 2.5 percentage point increase in the share of electric vehicles from 2022.
The share of electric cars has surpassed that of diesel in new car sales in the European Union, as a whole, for the first time.
The increase in car sales in general is 14 percent.
On the other hand, electric car sales rose by 37 percent, while fossil car sales increased by 11 percent.

Norway is at the top, and Sweden is leading the way in the European Union

As you can see from the chart above, electric vehicles are now the third most popular engine in new car sales in the EU.

A total of 2,019,401 new electric vehicles were registered for the entire year, representing an increase of 28.2 percent compared to the previous year.

The figures refer to European Union member states, as well as Switzerland, Great Britain, Norway and Iceland.

9 out of 10 new taxis purchased last year were electric cars

Germany leads the way in terms of the number of new electric cars sold

We look specifically number New electric cars, Germany comes in first place with approximately 524,219 electric cars, which is equivalent to a quarter of the entire market in the region.

Great Britain ranked second with 314,684 new electric cars, and France ranked third with 298,219 cars.

With 112,208 registrations in 2023, more electric vehicles were sold for the first time in Sweden than Norway.

See the full table of both the share of electric cars and the number of electric cars sold in various European countries at the bottom of the article.

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December: Iceland overtook Norway

If we look specifically at sales statistics for the Nordic countries in December, we see that Iceland overtook Norway this month, that is, as long as we are talking about the share of electric cars in new car sales.

We also see that the distance between us and our other northern neighbors has continued to shrink:

Denmark is back again, and for the first time it achieved a 50% share of electric cars in the same month.

If we look again at the number of cars sold, we see another interesting detail:

More electric cars have already been sold in both Sweden and Denmark than in Norway in December.

EU rules govern the transition to zero emissions

Although this is a new record for the EU, the proportion of electric vehicles increased by only 2.5 percentage points, from 12.1 percent in 2022 to 14.6 percent in 2023.

The introduction of electric vehicles in the European Union is largely subject to EU emissions requirements for new passenger cars. Requirements are determined at the manufacturer level and fines are imposed on car manufacturers that do not meet the requirements. Sveinung Kvalo says the fines make it profitable to sell electric cars until the requirements are met.

KAN EU: – Both 2023 and 2024 are intermediate years in European emissions regulation, so we do not expect any significant change in the proportion of electric cars in 2024 either, says Svenung Kvalu at the Electric Vehicle Association.

Cavallo is a senior advisor in the professional section of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, and is well versed in EU policy on climate and electric vehicles.

He points out that the requirements are only updated every five years, and in the years 2020-2024 the requirement was set at 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

This requirement will be gradually adjusted in two stages (by 15 percent in 2025-2029 and by 55 percent in 2030) – before setting the zero-emission requirement in 2035.

– Both 2023 and 2024 are intermediate years in European emissions regulation, so we do not expect any significant change in the share of electric vehicles in 2024 either. However, national subsidy plans for electric cars, and more competitive cars, may be as well. “Increasing the share of electric vehicles even more,” Cavallo says.

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This is how electric car sales were in various European countries in 2023 and 2022:

	Electric cars 2023	Electric car share 2023	Electric cars 2022	Share of electric cars 2022
Austria	47,621	19.9%	34165	15.9%
Belgium	93,285	19.6%	37,619	10.3%
Bulgaria	1816	4.8%	828	2.9%
Croatia	1637	2.8%	1,369	3.1%
Cyprus	788	5.3%	365	3.1%
Czech Republic	6700	3.0%	3,944	2.1%
Denmark	62,759	36.3%	30822	20.8%
Estonia	1445	6.3%	687	3.4%
Finland	29,535	33.8%	14,530	17.8%
France	298219	16.8%	202,929	13.3%
Germany	524219	18.4%	470559	17.7%
Greece	6,379	4.7%	2,827	2.7%
Hungary	5,799	5.4%	4,709	4.2%
Ireland	22,789	18.6%	15,678	14.9%
Italy	66,265	4.2%	49,169	3.7%
Latvia	1,692	8.9%	1,073	6.4%
Lithuania	2,060	7.5%	1,350	5.3%
Luxembourg	11,052	22.5%	6,393	15.2%
Malta	1,248	17.3%	984	15.4%
Holland	113,981	30.8%	73,250	23.5%
Poland	17,078	3.6%	11,291	2.7%
Portugal	36,390	18.2%	18,028	11.5%
Romania	15,368	10.6%	11,638	9.0%
Slovakia	2,346	2.7%	1,390	1.8%
Slovenia	4,330	8.9%	2,293	4.9%
Spain	51,612	5.4%	30,521	3.8%
Sweden	112208	38.7%	95,033	33.0%
European Union	1,538,621	14.6%	1,123,444	12.1%
Iceland	8,781	50.1%	5,566	33.4%
Norway	104,587	82.4%	138,254	79.3%
Switzerland	52,728	20.9%	40173	17.8%
European Free Trade Association	166,096	41.9%	183,993	44.1%
Great Britain	314,684	16.5%	267 204	16.6%
European Union + European Free Trade Association + United Kingdom	2,019,401	15.7%	1,574,641	13.9%

Source: Association

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