Electric Cars OUTSELL Diesel in Europe – but top-seller is the Dacia Sandero

Electric cars outsold diesel-engined cars for the first time in Europe in August as total volume fell 18%. Dacia Sandero was the best-seller.

It’s not so long ago that diesel cars dominated the European market – the UK included – but then came Dieselgate, since when diesel car sales have collapsed.

Now, six years on from Dieselgate – and with VW re-inventing itself as EV evangelists – things have changed remarkably, and August 2021 saw electric cars outsell diesel cars in Europe for the first time. Not by much, just 10k, but it’s a significant landmark in the legislative push to get us all to drive EVs.

To be entirely accurate, JATO’s EV figures also include plug-in hybrids, but the combined ‘electric’ numbers took 21 per cent of the market, diesel 20 per cent and petrol the big share with 56 per cent.

On the pure EV front, the top sellers were the VW ID.3, Tesla Model 3 and VW ID.4, and for PHEVs it was the Ford Kuga, Mercedes GLC and the BMW 3 Series,.

But away from the alternatively-fueled cars, it was the budget Sandero topping the sales chart, followed by the VW Golf and Toyota Yaris.

Felipe Munoz, Global Analyst at JATO Dynamics, said:

The performance of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars continues to grow. A sharp uptick in demand last month saw these vehicles post their second-highest ever monthly market share at 21%. The 151,737 units registered last month marks a year-on-year increase of 61% and takes total volume since January to 1.32 million units.