Source: Wall Street

In the third quarter, nearly 1/5 of new car sales in the European Union were electric vehicles, which continued to soar, while sales of fuel vehicles fell sharply, according to data released by the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA) on Friday. Sales of electric vehicles surpassed diesel cars for the first time in history in August to become the second most popular powertrain in the EU car market.

Data released by the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA) on Friday show thatIn the third quarter, nearly 1/5 of new car sales in the European Union were electric vehicles, which continued to soar, while sales of fuel vehicles fell sharply.Of this total, sales of pure electric vehicles increased by nearly 57% to more than 212000 units, while sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles increased by nearly 43% to more than 197000 units. The share of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids has almost doubled-9.8% and 9.1% of the market, respectively.

Although the overall number of new car registrations in the EU fell in the third quarter, the growth of electric vehicles was strong:

In terms of pure electric vehicles, the four major EU markets have achieved double-digit or even triple-digit percentage growth. Italy (+ 122.0%), Germany (+ 62.7%), France (+ 34.6%) and Spain (+ 21.8%).

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) also expanded its share of EU car sales, with registrations rising 42.6 per cent to 197300. Of the four major markets, Italy had the strongest growth, with sales growing by 130.6% in the third quarter, followed by Spain (+ 87.5%), France (+ 49.5%) and Germany (+ 37.5%).

For the European marketAugust is also a special month, as sales of electric vehicles surpass diesel cars for the first time in history to become the second most popular powertrain in the EU car market.

In the third quarter, traditional gasoline and diesel cars continued to lose their edge, with gasoline vehicle sales falling by 35.1%, but still the top seller, accounting for nearly 40% of the total car sales market.

Diesel vehicles struggled even more, with sales falling by more than 50%, accounting for less than 18% of all car sales in the third quarter. Less than a decade ago, diesel cars accounted for more than 50% of the EU car market.

Behind the ice and fire of sales, there is a change in the concept of consumption. Electric cars are the trend of the future. In addition to the EU's strict carbon emissions policies, carmakers and consumers also benefit from government subsidies and incentives for electric vehicles. Earlier, the European Commission proposed an effective ban on fuel vehicles from 2035, aimed at speeding up the transition to zero-emission electric vehicles and actively responding to the "global warming" crisis.

BMW sold about 78333 plug-in cars last quarter, up 41.1 per cent from a year earlier. So far, sales of pure electric cars have more than doubled this year. The outstanding performance of pure electric vehicles can be attributed to BMW iX3, which entered the European market in early 2021. So far, 20887 vehicles have been sold in the whole year. Soon, BMW iX and BMW i4 will be unveiled in the European market in November, joining BMW's list of electric cars.

Volkswagen's electric car sales doubled in the third quarter and are up 138% this year. Based on the strong need for electric cars in the car market in the future, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has warned that "if Volkswagen moves too slowly from fuel to electric cars, it could put 30, 000 employees out of work."