In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, car sales have suffered globally. Up until now the worst affected had been China, now it has been Europe’s turn, since during March the fall has been 52% (848,800 units, with a total of 3.04 million in the accumulated of all the first trimester).
These results, the worst in the last 38 years, seem to be passing less bill to electrified vehicles (battery-powered, plug-in hybrids, and hybrids), as they increased their sales by 15% compared to last year, reaching a total of 147,500 units sold. Besides, its market share was 17.4%, a record compared to 7.3% last year.
This has been possible thanks to the impulse of the plug-in models, as the conventional hybrids saw their sales fall by 11%. Most impressive of all, the Tesla Model 3 was crowned the second best-selling car in all of Europe in March. Including not only electrified vehicles, but also gasoline and diesel.
This is not the first time that the American sedan has achieved such a milestone. In December 2019, it was crowned the third best-selling car in Europe. In both cases, the good numbers have been because Tesla tends to increase its volume of deliveries at the end of each quarter. In March 2019, the only model that has been ahead of the Tesla sedan was the everlasting Volkswagen Golf.
The excellent performance of the American model has meant that segment D, in full decline, has experienced the smallest drop in sales in the entire market. The Tesla Model 3 (15,443 units) is followed by the Renault ZOE (4,298 units) and the Volkswagen e-Golf (3,434 units). Two models that despite their seniority continue to work very well in the old continent.
“By type of fuel, electric vehicles were able to increase their registrations by 15% to 147,500 units in March, registering new record participation of 17.4%, or 10.1 percentage points more than in March 2019. Contrary to the trend in 2019, growth was not fueled by Tesla. The positive results were the result of more electrified vehicles from Mercedes-Benz (+ 44%), Volkswagen (+ 240%), BMW (+ 15%), Hyundai (+ 25%), Volvo (+ 79%), and Suzuki, among others.
However, only pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids were driving this growth, as hybrids posted an 11% decline. In fact, only 10,000 fewer electric cars than hybrids were delivered. The Volkswagen e-Golf, Audi e-Tron and Volkswagen e-up! They recorded impressive results in March. Newcomers Mini Cooper SE, Peugeot e-208, MG ZS EV, and others accounted for 17% of total electric car sales.”