Europe: Plug-In Car Sales Reached 19% Market Share In January 2022

Kia Niro EV was the most registered electric car model.

2022 Kia Niro EV

Mark Kane

By: Mark Kane

Mar 7, 2022 at 8:48am ET

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Europe noted a slight decrease in new passenger car registrations in January, by 2% year-over-year.

According to EV Volumes' data shared by Jose Pontes, for the European car market, it was the worst January in 30 years. Nonetheless, plug-in electric car sales increased.

Last month, some 156,236 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered (up 39% year-over-year), while the market share improved to 19%.

See more sales reports for Europe here.

Most of the plug-in car sales happen to be battery-electric cars (BEVs), which represent 53% of the total. BEVs are also growing very quickly (up by 78% year-over-year), compared to plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which increased by 11% year-over-year.

BEVs: about *83,000 (up 78% year-over-year, 10% share)
PHEVs: about *73,000 (up 11% year-over-year, 9% share)
Total: 156,236 (up 39% year-over-year, 19% share)

* estimated from the market share

Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Europe – January 2022

For reference, in 2021, about 2,272,666 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Europe. That's a big 66% increase compared to 1.37 million units in 2020 (reported by the same data source at the time).

Thanks to the strong second half of the year, the average plug-in electric car market share in 2021 improved to 19%, including 10% for all-electric cars and 9% for plug-in hybrids.

The most popular plug-in models

January brings some surprising results, including first place for the Kia Niro EV (e-Niro). Because it's the first month of the year, we would not draw any conclusions yet. We need to see 1-2 more months to see whether some of the models are really becoming more popular than others.

Results for the month:

Kia Niro EV (e-Niro) - 4,035
Peugeot 3008 PHEV - 3,615
Audi Q4 e-tron - 3,585
Renault ZOE - 3,432
Volvo XC40 PHEV - 3,425
Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 3,407
Hyundai Kona Electric - 3,371
Fiat 500 electric - 3,339
Dacia Spring - 3,275
Volkswagen ID.4 - 3,247

Top automotive groups in January 2022

The top automotive groups by plug-in electric car sales volume in Europe:

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Volkswagen Group - 20.3% share (Audi - 6.8%, Volkswagen brand - 6.2%)
Stellantis - 16.4% share (Peugeot brand at 6.9%)
Hyundai Motor Group - 13.2 % share (Kia brand at 7.2%, Hyundai at 6%)
BMW Group - 12.4% share (BMW brand at 9.7%)
Mercedes Group - 10.7% share (Mercedes-Benz brand at 9.5%)
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance - 8.7% share
Geely-Volvo - 8.3% share (Volvo brand at 6.7%)

The results are also quite unusual. We can see premium brands on top (BMW and Mercedes-Benz), Audi ahead of Volkswagen, and the very strong position of Hyundai Motor Group.

Tesla is not mentioned as its results in January were relatively low. In the past, Tesla usually delivered a high volume of cars in the later part of a quarter.