The European car market is still at a standstill, growing by 31.1% since the beginning of the year compared to the spring of 2020, a period heavily conditioned by closures and traffic restrictions due to the Covid alarm, but still at less than 25% compared to in the same period – January-May – of 2019. Even the forecasts for the coming months, in reality, do not suggest a clear reversal of the trend. The transit phase towards electrification, points out the Centro Studi Promotor, is underway but the growing sales are not able to pull the market.
In Italy there was a smaller decrease due to the incentives
Among the five major markets in the area, the one that, in comparison with 2019, shows the smallest contraction is Italy where the incentives have supported the purchase not only of electric or hybrid models but also of traditional engines, up to 135 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer. If therefore Italy loses just over 19% compared to January-May 2019, France marks a contraction of 22.7%, Germany by 27.6%, the United Kingdom by 30.8% and Spain by 35. , 9%.
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The manufacturers all recorded double-digit growth compared to May 2020 and for the entire period. Stellantis, in particular, improves its market presence by one percentage point (from 20.5 to 21.5%), behind Volkswagen. Among the brands, Jerep has recovered more brilliantly since the beginning of the year with an increase in registrations of 65.2% since January, while in the month the most brilliant performance was that of Opel. At Volkswagen, according to the data processed by Acea, the brand with the best growth was Seat.
Less than the others, the Renault Group is growing (just over 17% more registrations from January to May), while for Daimler the exploit of Smart is to be reported, which has increased from 5 thousand to 15 thousand units compared to last year, a figure more than tripled in the month. Hyundai consolidates its fourth position in the ranking of manufacturers with a market share of more than 7%.
In the first quarter of 2021, according to the Acea report, hybrid electric vehicles accounted for 18.4% of total passenger car sales in Europe, a share that doubled in the space of one year. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 5.7% of all new cars, while plug-in hybrid cars accounted for 8.2%. Sales of traditional cars continue to decline even though petrol and diesel still represent 65.4% of the automotive market.