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Writer's pictureMatthias Schmidt

August 2020 West European electric car market round-up

"EVs slowly becoming ubiquitous on Main Street"

Full report available here

Key Updates:

  • W-European plug-in market remains ahead of China

  • German BEV volumes draw level with California's market

  • Pool party – With VW opening its EU CO2 pool, will Daimler follow suit?

  • Daimler's plug-in push sees supercredit busting smaller PHEVs pick up the pace

  • German monthly plug-in passenger car production moves above 40,000 units

  • Total plug-in volumes remain on target to reach 1 million this year

  • SUV/Crossover largest BEV sector so far this year

  • CO2 values remain at new historically low levels, with large falls in UK/Germany

As West-European new plug-in passenger car registrations approach 1- in-10 this year (9.1% Aug YTD, with a near-even split between PHEV and BEVs, contributing in the race to 2020 EU CO2 compliance), following the summer holiday 'retournez', the market is expected to further silently pick-up the pace this September, while heading towards 1 million combined units in an 11 million market this year.

European electric car market 12-month rolling trend
European electric car sales 12-month rolling total up to July 2020 and historical trend

With indications of a second COVID wave on the horizon and a potential consequence of more lock-downs, the market was boosted in August by those manufacturers in particular that are late to the CO2 compliance game with the finish line possibly arriving earlier than expected.


As a result – and somewhat of a surprise – Volkswagen Group announced a form of CO2 "hedging" in September by opening up its CO2 pool to the end of October for 2020 membership, while announcing that Chinese joint venture partners, SAIC, under its MG brand (see new product review, page 3) has joined. MG has had a relatively successful year (Fig. 08/12), seeing its BEV volumes surpass Jaguar's, Mercedes' and ŠKODA's...



This is just a summary of The European Electric Report Car Sales Monthly Market Intelligence Report which is published on a monthly basis and are available here.

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