Market Analysis

New car sales in the European Union experienced a modest increase of 0.2% in July, hampered by declines in key markets like France and Germany, while battery-electric vehicles continued to lose market share, according to data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) on Thursday.

Despite improvements in the electric vehicle (EV) markets of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, a nearly 37% drop in Germany’s battery-electric vehicle sales offset these gains, ACEA reported.

Significance

The car market across the EU has shown mixed trends, partly due to varying green incentive policies, while regulators have implemented significant tariffs to deter the influx of cheap Chinese EVs.

Key Statistics

Electrified vehicles—including fully electric models, plug-in hybrids, and full hybrids—accounted for 50.9% of all new passenger car registrations in the EU in July, up from 47% the previous year. However, sales of battery-electric and plug-in vehicles declined by 10.8% and 14.1%, respectively, while hybrid-electric car sales surged by 25.7%.

Car registrations for Europe’s three largest automakers—Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Renault—dropped by 2.2%, 5.2%, and 1.7%, respectively, compared to the previous year, as competition from China intensifies. Tesla’s sales fell by 14.7%, while China’s SAIC Motor saw a 24.2% increase in sales.

Context

On August 20, the European Commission reduced its proposed tariff on imports of Tesla vehicles manufactured in China to 9%, while largely maintaining planned tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, which could reach up to 36.3%.

Stellantis, which recorded the steepest decline in sales among EU carmakers, had previously reported a larger-than-expected drop in revenue and operating profit for the first half of the year, also citing internal operational challenges.

Paraphrasing text from "Reuters" all rights reserved by the original author.