In Europe, diesel cars have regained the upper hand over electric sales

While electric has taken precedence over diesel in recent months, diesel has just resurfaced by overtaking electric. We should see a battle between these two energies in the months to come, before electric takes off definitively.

The European automotive market experienced its twelfth consecutive month of growth in July, surpassing 851,000 registrations.

The surprise is that after a month of June when electric overtook diesel, the diesel is ironed in front according to the figures relayed by the association of manufacturers (ACEA).

The main markets are performing

In total, last month, 851,156 units were sold in the European Union, i.e. 15.2% more over one year, with clear growth in the four largest markets: +19.9% in France, +18.1% in Germany, +10.7% in Spain and +8, 7% in Italy. For the first seven months of the year, the increase is 17.6%, with 6.3 million new cars sold, a figure however 22% lower than this period in 2019, before the pandemic.

The European automotive market has started to grow sustainably again since August 2022, when the health crisis, combined with a shortage of parts including crucial electronic components, hit it in the back of the head.

Diesel takes over (temporarily) over electric

Despite a dazzling growth of 60.6% to 115,971 units in July, sales of electric cars represent 13.6% of the market, behind gasoline (35.8%) and diesel (14,1 %), when they passed the latter for the first time in history in June.

Between January and July, some 2.3 million petrol cars were sold in the EU (+14% year on year), compared to 910,000 Diesel (-3%) and 820,000 electric (+55%). Hybrids reached 1.6 million sales over this period (+29%), and rechargeable hybrids 468,000 units (+2%).

As for brands and manufacturers, Tesla experienced the strongest growth in July, at nearly 14,000 cars (+650%), however still very far behind the behemoths Volkswagen (233,000 units, +18%) and Stellantis (144,000 sales , -6.1%). The Renault group saw its sales increase by 17%, to 90,000 registrations.

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