The new car market in January 2023 in the EU closed on a positive note. According to official data from ACEA, registrations of new passenger cars increased by 11.3% in January 2023 compared to the corresponding month last year. A positive sign was also noted in the pure electric car market, as they occupied 9.5% of the total sales pie.

In January 2023, the European Union passenger car market grew by 11.3% to 760,041 units, starting the new year on a positive note. However, this increase was largely due to an unusually moderate market movement in January 2022, when volume for the month of January was the lowest on record.

At country level, the region’s positive performance was reflected in three of the four key markets. The strongest gains were made in Spain (+51.4%) and Italy (+19.0%), followed by France, with more modest but stable growth (+8.8%). An exception to this trend was Germany, which recorded a 2.6% drop last month.

In the first month of 2023, registrations of battery electric and hybrid passenger cars in the EU continued to grow, accounting for 9.5% and 26% of the market respectively. However, petrol remained the most popular fuel type for new cars in the EU, with a market share of 37.9%.

January registrations of new pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) increased by 22.9%, reaching 71,984 cars registered across the EU and a market share of 9.5% (vs. 8.6% in January 2022). Most markets in the region contributed significantly to this growth, with double- and triple-digit percentage gains. However, there were a few exceptions in some of the EU’s biggest volume markets for this drivetrain: Germany (-13.2%), Sweden (-18.5%) and Italy (8.7%).

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) also had a strong start to the year. Their volumes increased by 22.1% to 197,982 units, supported by double-digit gains in the region’s four largest markets: Spain (+59.3%), Italy (+24.7%), Germany (+19.0%) and France (+12.5%). This resulted in a market share of 26.0%, an improvement of 2.3 percentage points compared to January 2022.

On the other hand, EU plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) sales fell 9.9% to 53,649 units in January as registrations more than halved in Germany (-53.2%), which until last year it was the largest market by volume for such cars. As a result, the market share for PHEVs has shrunk from 8.7% in January 2022 to 7.1% this year.

Registrations of new petrol cars in the EU rose 12.3% in January, helping to expand their market share to 37.9% (vs. 37.6% in 2022). All major markets in the region contributed to this growth: Spain (+59.4%), Italy (+15.5%), France (+11.9%) and Germany (+3.5%).

In contrast, the EU diesel car market continued to struggle – down 1.6% last month – despite notable increases in registrations in Italy (+21.4%) and Spain (+19.0%). This resulted in a decrease in market share of 2.0 percentage points, from 17.9% to 15.9%.