European EV registrations double in Q1 to 6.8% of market: ACEA

New York — Electric vehicle sales more than doubled their market share year on year across Europe in the first quarter to 6.8%, or 167,132 cars, against the backdrop of an overall decline in registrations, manufacturers' association ACEA said Tuesday.

"In reality, the statistics are skewed by the drop in sales of traditional internal combustion engines [because of COVID-19]," one trader said. "Once ICE sales start picking up again, as Europe comes out of respective lockdowns, then you would imagine that [EV] market share will take a substantial hit.

As an example of a country coming out of lockdown elsewhere, China's vehicle output and sales in April were 2.102 million units and 2.07 million, respectively, up 46.6% and 43.5% month on month and 2.3% and 4.4% higher than a year earlier, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers data showed Monday, marking the first year-on-year growth in 2020.

Similarly, April output and sales volumes of new energy vehicles rose 60% and 36%, respectively, from March, but dropped 22.1% and 26.5% year on year to 80,000 units and 72,000.

China NEVs slow

Output and sales of NEVs over January-April accounted for about 3.7% and 3.6% of the total, S&P Global Platts calculations showed.

CAAM suggested the domestic market keep track of the pandemic situation outside China and make preparations to mitigate any potential impact the coronavirus pandemic might have on the automobile industry.

ACEA said Tuesday the number of diesel cars registered across the EU fell 32.6% in Q1 to 738,392, taking market share to 29.9% from 33.2% a year ago.

"All the markets in the region went into decline, notably the four largest ones: Italy (down 49.8%), France (down 36.6%), Spain (down 33.8%) and Germany (down 23.0%). With the vast majority of European dealerships closed in March as a result of the containment measures, demand for petrol cars also plummeted."

Petrol car sales fell 32.2% to 1.3 million in Q1. With the exception of Cyprus and Lithuania, all EU markets have faced double-digit drops this year, ACEA said.

According to ACEA, hybrid electric vehicles remained the best-sellers of the alternatively-powered vehicle segment, representing 9.4% of the total EU car market. Some 232,525 units were registered during the first quarter, up 45.1% year on year.

UK off a cliff in April

UK new car registrations fell off a cliff in April, down 97.3% year on year at 4,321 units, according to figures published last week by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

SMMT expected 1.68 million new car registrations for full year 2020, the lowest since 1992.

Because of the highly distorted sales, UK EVs accounted for 31.8% of the market, up from 0.9% a year ago.

One broker said he did not hold out much hope for EVs in the short term, at least. "I expect demand for big ticket items like EVs will be subdued in the near term, unless there are some very attractive deals."