The diesel scare plummets low-CO2 cars’ sales
In the wake of Dieselgate, many European cities announced they would soon forbid diesel-powered cars from their streets. The general public reacted badly. Registrations of diesel cars reached 1,574,333 units, a whopping 322,622 units (17.0%) less than during the same period in 2017, according to ACEA. A total of 37.9% of all new passenger cars in the EU ran on diesel in the same period.
Almost all clients opted for petrol cars instead, leading to a sale increase of around 300,000 units more than last year (+14.6%) from January to March 2018, with petrol sales reaching 2,303,129 units, for a 55.5% market share. Alternatively?powered vehicles accounted for 6.5% of EU car sales in Q1 2018, and EVs reached 1.7% of all cars sold. While demand for alternatively?powered vehicles grew by +26.9%, registrations of battery electric (+34.3%) and plug?in hybrid electric cars (+60.2%) accounted for the strongest growth – in total, 69,898 electrically?chargeable cars were registered from January to March 2018 (+47.0%).
Read more: DriveMag