ACEA, the Europe' representative body for car, van, truck and bus manufacturers has released new data on the type of fuel used in new vehicles. It concludes that in the first quarter of 2020 in the EU, the electrically-chargeable vehicle segment significantly increased its market share, rising to 6.8% (from 2.5% in Q1 2019) against the backdrop of the overall decline in passenger car registrations due to the COVID-19 outbreak. By contrast, demand for diesel and petrol vehicles tumbled dramatically.

ACEA say that during the first quarter of 2020, the number of diesel cars registered across the European Union plummeted by 32.6% to 738,392. Diesel now holds a market share of 29.9% (down from 33.2% for the first quarter of 2019). All the markets in the region went into decline, notably the four largest ones: Italy (-49.8%), France (-36.6%), Spain (-33.8%) and Germany (-23.0%).

With the vast majority of European dealerships closed in March as a result of the containment measures, demand for petrol cars also plummeted. Petrol sales contracted by 32.2%, from almost 2 million units last year to 1.3 million in Q1 2020.

From January to March 2020, electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) substantially benefited from the decline in diesel and petrol demand. ECV sales more than doubled (+100.7%) in the first three months of the year, totalling 167,132 cars registered across the EU. Both the battery-electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) segments provided a strong boost to this growth (+68.4 and +161.7% respectively).

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) remained the best-sellers of the alternatively-powered vehicle segment, representing 9.4% of the total EU car market. 232,525 units were registered during the first quarter of the year (+45.1% compared to 2019).