BYD is confidently conquering the European market. / Wikipedia
New car sales in Europe rose 5.9% in July as a surge in Germany outweighed declines in the UK, France and Italy. Competition among electric car makers is intensifying, with Chinese auto giant BYD overtaking Tesla in market share for the first time.
This is reported by Delo.ua with reference to a Reuters publication.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), sales in the EU and the UK rose to 1.09 million cars last month.
Volkswagen and Renault registered 11.6% and 8.8% year-on-year increases, respectively. Tesla's registrations fell 40.2%, reducing the company's market share to 0.8% from 1.4% a year ago. Chinese auto giant BYD's models performed the best. They rose 225.3%, securing 1.2% of the market.
Total car sales in the EU rose by 7.4%. Registrations of battery electric, hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid cars increased by 39.1%, 56.9% and 14.3% respectively, together accounting for 59.8% of registrations in the bloc, compared to 51.1% in July 2024.
Sales in Germany increased by 11.1%, in the UK by 5%, in France by 7.7% and in Italy by 5.1%. Spain, Poland and Austria recorded increases of 17.1%, 16.5% and 31.6% respectively.
Analysts said July's growth in European car sales was the biggest in 15 months as consumers shrugged off concerns about the global economy and splurged on fully electric and hybrid models.
The biggest jump of 52% was seen in sales of plug-in hybrids, as buyers increasingly choose models that combine electric vehicles with a backup internal combustion engine. Sales of fully electric cars rose by more than a third, the best performance since January.
As a reminder, a record 600,000 new electric cars were registered in Western Europe in the second quarter of the year. This was made possible by the emergence of more affordable models from manufacturers such as Renault and Stellantis, which are attracting the attention of private buyers.
