More than one million battery-electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), were sold for the first time in Europe last year, securing a 10% share of overall sales in the market.

The report by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA) shows nearly one-in-six passenger cars, registered in the fourth quarter of 2020 was an electrically-charged vehicle.

The research also finds hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) made up 11.9% of total passenger car sales across the EU, up from 5.7% in 2019.

HEV saw an increase during the last three months of 2020, with sales doubling from 212,612 vehicles in 2019 to 435,260 last year.

The data suggests Covid-19 hit the car industry hard, with a decline of three million registrations of new vehicles – diesel and petrol-powered motors were hardest hit.

However, conventional fuels still dominated car sales, holding a 75.5% market share last year.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the number of diesel and petrol cars registered fell by 23% and 33.7% respectively.

Article source: https://www.energylivenews.com/2021/02/05/more-than-a-million-evs-and-hybrids-sold-in-europe-in-2020/