- Electric vehicle registrations were down last year in Europe.
- Tesla, the largest solo player in the EV game, took a hard hit.
- The American automaker’s registration numbers fell by over 10%.
There’s no getting around the fact that electric vehicle registrations went down last year in Europe. Depending on how many countries you take into consideration, EV registrations dipped between 1.3% and 5.9% in 2024 compared to 2023.
That’s a stark difference to the United States and China, where EV sales were on the rise last year, so what’s going on in Europe? Let’s look at the numbers and try to figure out what happened.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), customers in the European Union registered 1,447,934 EVs last year, down 5.9% compared to 2023’s 1,538,106 cars. After adding the United Kingdom and the member states of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) into the mix, the number of EVs registered in 2024 was 1,993,102, down 1.3% from the 2,018,885 units in 2023.
In the EU, battery-powered cars now account for 13.6% of the market, down from 14.6% in 2023. That said, EVs were hardly the biggest loser here. Gas- and diesel-powered cars had similar or even more severe drops in registrations, depending on which countries are taken into account. Gas cars went down 4.8% in the EU, with a more significant 6.8% drop when looking at the EU, UK and EFTA numbers.
Diesel passenger vehicles took a beating, recording the largest dip in registrations of all the power sources. In the EU, diesel cars went down 11.4%, while in the EU, UK and EFTA, registrations dropped by 11.8%.
Plug-in hybrids were also in the red, with a 6.8% drop in registrations in the EU in 2024. A healthy market in the United Kingdom helped PHEVs slightly, but overall, registrations in the EU, UK and EFTA went down 3.9%.
The European car market in 2024Photo by: ACEA
The only power source to see significant growth last year in Europe was hybrid. Regular hybrid cars (those that don’t have a plug) went up 20.9% in the EU and 19.6% in the EU, UK and EFTA combined. In total, there were 10.6 million cars registered in the EU, a 0.8% increase from the previous year. In the EU, UK and EFTA combined, new car registrations reached 12.9 million units, up 0.9% from 2023.
But what about EVs and Tesla in particular? It is in the title, after all. In short, people are slowly shifting away from the maker of the Model 3, and it’s taking down the entire market. Last year, Tesla had 327,034 cars registered in the EU, UK and EFTA, down 10.8% from 2023. That’s 16% of the entire EV market in this part of the world. Ln 2023, Tesla sold more cars here, and its share of the EV segment was even higher–18%.
If we were to take Tesla out of the equation magically, EV registrations in the EU, UK and EFTA would actually be up 0.8%. That’s impossible for many reasons–the biggest being that Tesla is still the largest solo player in the EV game in Europe–but it goes to show that other automakers can theoretically hold their own and can even convince Tesla shoppers to look elsewhere.
That’s a big deal. And with more affordable EVs making their way into Europe this year, Tesla might have a problem on its hands. Sure, the updated Model Y is on its way, but much cheaper cars from rival automakers will reach dealerships, opening the gates for people who would not otherwise consider an EV because of the $30,000+ price tags.
