European electric car market outpaces China

According to the July edition of the European Electric Car Report industry publication, available later this month, the exclusive data shows that during the opening 7-months of 2020 the West European passenger car market outpaced that of China's, in volume terms.

European plug-in passenger car volumes now larger than in China so far this year

The West European passenger car market, made up of the original EU member states prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA member states Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, witnessed total new plug-in (BEV/PHEV) passenger car registrations reached half a million units, during the opening 7-months of 2020.

Consisting of combined PHEV and BEV volumes, boosted by generous government and OEM backed purchase subsidies, as well as fiscal subsidies in major markets in a response to the corona pandemic and assisting OEMs in meeting tougher EU (+ EFTA and UK minus Switzerland) wide fleet average CO2 emissions legislation phased-in this year, saw both categories record months in July.

While West European BEV registrations reached 269,000 units so far this year, PHEVs reached 231,000 units, with PHEVs outpacing BEVs for the first time this year in the month of July. During the same period, according to CAAM supplied data, Chinese plug-in volumes, that include commercial vehicles, reached 486,000 units during the same seven month period. Key points from July:

• W-European combined plug-in registrations reached 0.5 million units during the opening 7-months
  

• European plug-in passenger car registrations outpace China
  

• 2020 full year West European volumes remain on target to touch 1 million units with a large push expected in H2 to meet CO2 compliance and more Tesla units being available to the European market and Volkswagen Group MEB-based model roll-outs.
  

• PHEVs outpaced BEVs for the first month this year in July

More in-depth analysis is available each month in the European Electric Car Report, available on a monthly or annual basis here