For the first time ever, electric vehicle (EV) sales were ahead of diesel sales in Europe in the month of August. According to Jato Dynamics, electric and plug-in hybrid new car registrations equaled 21% or 151,737 vehicles last month in Europe.
In contrast, diesel engine vehicles slipped to 20% of total new car registrations.
This is a shocking turn of events when you consider that August 2020 saw 158,300 more diesel registrations than EVs.
The push to EVs is a trend to watch in 2021, as European dealers have moved more than 1.32 million vehicles since January. The Fiat 500, Peugeot 208, Hyundai Kona, Kia Niro and the best-selling Volkswagen ID.3 had strong EV sales performances in August.
The top-selling Tesla was the newly introduced Model Y which came in 8th place.
It should be noted that although the ID.3 was the best-selling EV with 7,904 units sold, it did not make the top five best-selling cars in Europe. That title went to the gas-powered Dacia Sandero with 14,941 sales.
Although EVs keep moving up the charts, the overall new-vehicle market is down. August 2021 was the slowest month on record in Europe since August since 2014.
Source: CarDealer
