The Tesla Model 3 was the number one selling car across Europe in March, even when taking internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles into account.
Not to be left out of the spotlight, the Model Y was also extremely popular, claiming the third spot overall.
According to the figures from JATO Dynamics, the electric sedan took the top spot with 23,013 registrations last month. While that was a slight 3% drop from the same time period in 2021, it was 50% higher than March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the region.
In second place with 21,026 registrations was the budget-friendly Peugeot 208.
The Model Y was close behind in third place with 18,968 registrations last month.
When looking at just battery electric vehicles (BEVs), the Model 3 and Model Y were easily the most popular choice in Europe, accumulating 41,981 registrations combined.
The closest competition came from the Fiat 500 (6,579), Kia Niro (5,217), and Volkswagen ID.4 (5,009).
With just two models Tesla was able to outsell the several popular mainstream brands that offer a much broader lineup of vehicles at cheaper prices like Dacia, Citroen, Fiat, and Nissan.
The impressive performance was also indicative of a larger shift in customer sentiment towards low emission vehicles in Europe.
A total of 244,801 plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles (PHEV and BEV) were registered across the region last month, compared with 202,113 registrations of the once popular diesel-powered car.
According to JATO, this translates into a 10% increase in BEV and PHEV volume, while diesel experienced a drop in volume by 39%.
“The shift in favour to low emissions vehicles was particularly prevalent in countries such as Switzerland (which had a 28% EV market share vs 14% diesel market share), the UK (23% vs 10%), France (21% vs 16%) and Belgium (24% vs 19%), in addition to the well established trends seen in Norway, Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark,” JATO said.
