Drive to electric cars continues but Dacia Sandero overtakes Golf for Europe's top slot
Dacia Sandero is a five-door hatchback jointly produced by Romanian firm Dacia and its parent, Renault. Photo: PA
Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) hit their highest ever market share in Europe in June and July, while the Dacia Sandero beat the Volkswagen Golf as the highest-selling car across the continent last month.
Those are some of the findings from London-based motoring business intelligence firm Jato Dynamics, which analysed data from 26 markets across Europe.
The Sandero, a five-door hatchback jointly produced by Romanian firm Dacia and its parent, French giant Renault, was bought by almost 20,500 European motorists in July, taking the top spot for the first time since its launch back in 2008.
It beat perennial favourite, the Volkswagen Golf, which saw its July 2020 share plummet by 37% to just under 19,500 in July this year.
The Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Polo and T-Roc rounded out the top five vehicles sold during the month.
New car registrations slowed overall in July, recording a year-on-year decline of 24% as total volume decreased from 1.27 million units to 967,830, Jato said.
"In contrast to the overall trend, consumers in Europe continued to buy more low emissions vehicles. In July, a total of 160,646 BEV and PHEV vehicles were registered, accounting for almost 17% of total registrations.
"This is the second-highest monthly market share after June 2021, and the third highest ever in Europe – BEVs accounted for 47% of that total," Jato said.
BEV refers to battery-operated EVs. PHEVs are plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have come under fire as little better than fossil fuel-powered cars as they still rely heavily on pollutant-causing internal combustion.
While the upward trend of EVs was notable, it still is not enough to counterbalance reliance on fossil fuel-powered cars, Jato said.
Global analyst for the firm, Felipe Munoz, said: "Consumers continue to respond positively to the deals and incentives attached to EVs which have made these vehicles far more competitive in terms of their pricing. But despite becoming increasingly popular, consumer uptake has not been enough to offset the big drops posted by diesel cars.”
Jato said that between July 2019 and July 2020, the market share for diesel vehicles dropped by just over two points, while their market share dropped by almost eight points between July 2020 and July 2021. During the same period, the market share for EVs grew by the same amount lost for diesel vehicles, it added.
Market share for petrol cars has steadily declined from 63.4% in July 2019 to 59.8% in July 2020, and to 59% last month, Jato said.
Despite being the bane of environmental campaigners, Jato said that sport utility vehicle (SUVs) had recorded the highest ever monthly market share in Europe during July at 46.1%. The Hyundai Tucson and Ford Puma SUVs entered the top 10 of cars sold in July.
"Although the registrations volume fell by 15%, these vehicles gained market share at the expense of larger declines posted by the traditional cars (-28%), MPVs (-48%) and sport cars (-37%)," Jato said.
