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Europe: Plug-In Car Sales Reached Spectacular Record In December 2022

With more than 400,000 units sold, more than one in three new cars were rechargeable.

Tesla Model Y

Mark Kane

By: Mark Kane

Feb 7, 2023 at 2:14pm ET

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December was a very special month for plug-in electric car sales in Europe, as many new records were set.

According to EV Volumes data, shared by Jose Pontes, 413,483 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in Europe in December (up 46 percent year-over-year), which represents 38 percent of the total market. We never saw such high numbers - the previous record was nearly 282,000 in November.

All-electric car registrations also reached a new spectacular record of 275,277 units, which is not only 51 percent more than a year ago, but also 25 percent of the total car market.

Plug-in hybrids expanded to 138,206 units, but this might be the last rush, before ending incentives in some European markets. In general, January/early 2023 might be a slower time in terms of plug-in car sales, but that's not unusual.

New plug-in car registrations:

BEVs: 275,277 (up 51% year-over-year) and 25% share
PHEVs: 138,206 (up 40% year-over-year) and 13% share
Total: 413,483 (up 46% year-over-year) and 38.0% share

Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Europe – December 2022

In 2022, more than 2.6 million new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in Europe. That's about 23 percent of the total volume (compared to 19 percent a year earlier and 11 percent two years ago).

It's worth noting that BEVs expanded their share from roughly 10 percent to 14 percent, while PHEVs stuck at 9 percent.

BEVs: about *1.58 million and 14% share
PHEVs: about *1.02 million and 9% share
Total: 2,602,431 and 23% share

* estimated from the market share

Top plug-in models

In December, once again two Tesla electric cars were at the top - Model Y with an all-time EV monthly record of 32,442 and Model 3 with 20,335 (down 23 percent year-over-year). The Model Y was also the top-selling car in Europe overall.

The next two most popular models were the Volkswagen ID.4 (13,685 and a new record) and Volkswagen ID.3 (11,561, the second-best monthly result ever), followed by the plug-in hybrid Ford Kuga PHEV.

Many models set their best monthly registration results in December.

Results last month:

Tesla Model Y - 32,442
Tesla Model 3 - 20,335
Volkswagen ID.4 - 13,685
Volkswagen ID.3 - 11,561
Ford Kuga PHEV - 10,726
Dacia Spring - 9,694
Fiat 500 electric - 8,333
Renault Megane E-Tech - 8,084
Volvo XC40 Recharge - 7,732
Cupra Born - 7,489

After 12 months of 2022, the two Tesla cars were far ahead of the other plug-ins with respectively 138,373 Model Y and 91,257 Model 3 (down from 142,905 in 2021).

Outstanding sales results of the Volkswagen ID.4 in late 2022 allowed it to overtake the Fiat 500 electric and become the third most popular electric car in Europe.

The Ford Kuga PHEV (in the United States known as the Ford Escape PHEV) was the top-selling plug-in hybrid last year.

Results year-to-date:

Tesla Model Y - 138,373
Tesla Model 3 - 91,257
Volkswagen ID.4 - 68,409
Fiat 500 electric - 66,732
Ford Kuga PHEV - 55,018
Volkswagen ID.3 - 53,287
Skoda Enyaq iV - 52,635
Dacia Spring - 48,948
Peugeot e-208 - 46,834
Audi Q4 e-tron - 42,540
Hyundai Kona Electric - 41,880
Kia Niro EV (e-Niro) - 38,633
Hyundai Ioniq 5 - 38,080
Renault Zoe - 37,313
Mini Cooper SE - 34,828
Audi e-tron - 34,547
BMW 3 Series PHEV - 34,520
Renault Megane E-Tech - 33,187
Cupra Born - 32,615
Polestar 2 - 32,143

Top brands and automotive groups

Tesla was the most popular EV brand in Europe last year, but as an automotive group, it was actually far behind the largest multi-brand OEMs.

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Top plug-in brands (share year-to-date):

Tesla - 9.0%
BMW - 8.6%
Volkswagen - 8.4%
Mercedes-Benz - 8.2%
Audi - 5.6%
Kia - 5.4%
Volvo - 5.3%
Peugeot - 4.9%

Top plug-in automotive groups (share year-to-date):

Volkswagen Group - 20.6% share (Volkswagen brand at 8.4%, Audi at 5.6%)
Stellantis - 14.6% share
BMW Group - 10.5% share (BMW brand at 8.6%)
Hyundai Motor Group - 10.1 % share (Kia brand at 5.4%, Hyundai at 4.7%)
Mercedes Group - 9.0% share (Mercedes-Benz brand at 8.2%)
Tesla - 9.0% share
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance - 8.7% share
Geely–Volvo- 7.6%

More sales reports

Top All-Electric Car OEMs By Sales In 2022: BYD Pursues Tesla

Tesla Production And Deliveries Graphed Through Q4 2022: New Records

Source: Jose Pontes (EV Volumes data) - CleanTechnica

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