In May her car purchase EU saw a significant increase in passenger classifications cars. Specifically, according to ACEA’s official data, the increase reached 18.5% compared to the corresponding month last year.

Almost 1 million new cars were sold. Last May was the tenth consecutive month of growth in the EU market.

All four of the EU’s largest markets grew, with the strongest gains in Italy (+23.1%), Germany (+19.2%) and France (+14.8%).

From January to May 2023, the EU car market grew by 18%, to 4.4 million registered cars. Although the market improved in May, sales are still 23% lower compared to the same month in 2019, when 5.7 million units were recorded. The five-month period saw double-digit gains in most markets, including the four biggest: Spain (+26.9%), Italy (+26.1%), France (+16.3%) and Germany (+10.2%).

In May the market share of battery electric cars saw a significant increase, from 9.6% to 13.8%. Hybrid electric cars are now the second most popular choice for new car buyers, accounting for almost a quarter of the market. However, petrol cars still have the largest share at 36.5%.

Last month new registrations of battery electric cars in the EU showed a significant boost, increasing by 70.9% to 129,847 units. This equates to a market share of 13.8% and an increase of four percentage points compared to May 2022. Most EU markets recorded impressive double- and triple-digit percentage gains, including the top four: the Netherlands (+118.4%), Sweden (+82.6%), France (+48.7%) and Germany (+46.6%). Overall, this resulted in a cumulative increase of 50.5%, with over half a million units sold from January to May.

Hybrid electric cars maintained their growth momentum as sales rose 27.6% to 234,380 units in May. This result was largely driven by double-digit growth in the four largest EU markets: Germany (+54.5%), Italy (+27.2%), France (+22.1%) and Spain (+10.3 %). As a result, hybrid electric cars are the second most popular choice for new car buyers, accounting for almost a quarter of the market (up from 23.2% in May 2022).

The EU market for new plug-in hybrid cars fell slightly, with registrations down 0.6% in May. This decline is mainly due to the significant drop in sales in Germany ( 40.5%), the largest market for this fuel type, as incentives for plug-in hybrids were discontinued at the end of 2022. As a result, the total market share of plug-in hybrid cars fell to 7.4% from 8.8% in May last year.

In May the EU market for petrol cars increased by 12.6% to 342,806 units. Nevertheless, the market share stood at 36.5%, almost two percentage points less than in May 2022. The growth was mainly driven by increases in the four largest EU markets, notably Italy (+23.9%), France (+18.3%) and Germany (+17.6%). From January to May, more than 1.6 million petrol cars were sold in the EU, a remarkable 17% increase from the same period in 2022.

In contrast, the EU diesel car market fell by 2.9% last month, despite strong performances in two of the bloc’s biggest markets: Italy (+24.3%) and Germany (+3.6%) . Diesel cars now account for 14.3% of the EU market share, up from 17.4% in May 2022.