MORE electrified cars registered in Europe in September than diesel

For the first time ever, more electrified cars – EV, PHEV and Hybrid – have been registered in Europe than diesel-engined cars.

It’s probably fair to say that the news that more electrified cars have been registered in Europe in September than diesel cars – once the top-selling fuel in Europe – finally signals a proper swell in the sea change of powertrains, started back in 2015 when VW went rogue with Dieselgate.

The change is so great that one in four cars registered had some form of electrification – be that pure BEVs, plug-in hybrids or regular hybrids – as Europe’s sales recovered just slightly, according to JATO.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t just diesel-engined cars declining, but petrol too. Although the slip from 59 per cent of the market to 47 per cent is nowhere near as dramatic as diesel, and if you factor back in the petrol-engined hybrids it’s probably not actually dropped.

Top of the electrified sales is Toyota with its conventional hybrid models, with Tesla top of the tree for EVs (and VW coming up strongly behind with the ID.3) and the Mercedes A-Class and Volvo XC40 PHEVs the most popular PHEVs.

JATO’s Felipe Munoz said:

The shift from ICEs to EVs is finally taking place. Although this is largely down to government policies and incentives, consumers are also now ready to adopt these new technologies.

He may have a point, but the change in powertrains is really driven by tax breaks for business users on electrified cars and the need for car makers to cut their average emissions by delivering more electrified cars, especially BEVs and PHEVs.