1.8 percent of cars in Europe are electric

Even if we include plug-in hybrids, cars with full or partial electric drive only reach 3.9 percent arc spirala ruville pret fata si spate.

1.8 percent of cars in Europe are electric

As you know, the European Union wants to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035. At least for now. But even then, no one can forbid you from driving your own petrol or diesel engine, and new data shows that it will take a long time, possibly decades, for the majority of people to switch to electric cars.

Many doubt that this will happen at all. The following data fuels skepticism: in 2023, there were almost 249 million cars on the roads in the EU, but only 1.8% of them were fully electric. In Germany, this percentage was 2.84 as of January 1, 2024.

Newly released figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) show that electric cars still have a long way to go before they catch up with or even overtake combustion engines. Despite government subsidies, tax breaks and other benefits, fully electric cars make up only a small proportion of vehicles registered in Europe. Even when plug-in hybrids are taken into account, plug-in vehicles will account for just 3.9% of the total EU car fleet in 2023, according to ACEA.

As new car prices continue to rise at an alarming rate, it's no surprise that Europeans are sticking with their old cars for longer. The average age of a car in the EU is 12.5 years, with Greeks having the oldest fleet, with an average age of 17.5 years. At the other end of the scale are Luxembourgers, whose cars are an average of 8 years old.

ACEA estimates that there were 248,824,542 cars in the EU in 2023, 1.4% more than the previous year. Taking into account the European Free Trade Association countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland) and the United Kingdom, a total of 294,480,894 cars were on European roads in 2023, an increase of 1.4% compared to 2022.

Italians appear to be the most car-savvy with 694 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, while Latvia has the lowest car density with 381 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. The average European drives around 12,346 kilometres by car each year.

In 2024, the market share of fully electric cars in the EU was 13.6%, down one percentage point from the previous year. The share of plug-in hybrids also decreased from 7.7% to 7.1%. In the wider EU+EFTA+UK area, the share of electric cars fell slightly from 15.7% to 15.4%, while the share of PHEVs decreased from 7.7% to 7.3%. In Germany, the share of fully electric cars decreased by 4.9% to 13.5%.

Carmakers are struggling to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations long before the 2035 target of 0g/km is reached. Car companies risk paying hefty fines if they exceed fleet targets that came into effect this year. VW recently expressed concern that it could have to pay up to 1.5 billion euros for failing to meet the limits in 2025.

Car parts AutoPower
Car parts AutoPower

As you know, the European Union wants to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035

Many doubt that this will happen at all