Over 1.8 million EVs were sold in Europe last year

06 February 2024

Europe has its own fair share of ups and downs in 2023 and the sales numbers reflect the overall EV rather subdued picture. There were over 3 million plug-in vehicles sold in the Old Continent between January and December 2023 representing a 14% increase when compared to the previous year.

While most of the months last year saw EV and hybrid vehicle sales rising, December was an absolute disaster. 294,200 plug-in vehicles were sold, considerably down on December 2022 that saw 413,500 plug-in vehicles sold. That makes last December a month with the worst drop in EV and PHEV sales in over 10 years. BEVs dropped 25% and PHEVs had even worse results - 36% down.

There was a reasonable explanation though - the German market saw its EV subsidies cut 2 weeks before the end of the year. Sales pretty much ground to a halt while everyone was trying to figure out the next step. Many manufacturers introduced price cuts and other incentives and come January, the sales were back on the way up and 2023 still recorded higher sales than the year before.

Out of the over 3 million plug-in vehicles sold in 2023, hybrid cars represent 33%, down from a year before. Out of the top 20 plug-in vehicles, only 4 were hybrid with Volvo XC60 PHEV taking 11th spot. The PHEV market share is expected to reduce even further in the coming years.

To nobody's surprise, Tesla was the overall sales winner last December - Model Y secured a victory with over 25,000 units sold, with Model 3 following in a distant second place with 13,152 units sold. The hero of this story is the plucky MG 4, chasing Model 3 with 9,196 customers buying the Chinese EV.

Tesla scooped up the victory for the 2023 sales as well, with Model Y becoming the best-selling car in general. 255,062 units found owners across Europe with Model 3 coming again in second place with 101,313 vehicles sold. VW ID.3 ended up in 3rd place with 83,033 cars sold. The best-selling PHEV in 2023 was Ford Kuga which ended up securing 11th position courtesy of 52,646 vehicles sold.

What can be expected from 2024? The top of the leaderboard will remain unchanged, Tesla Model Y has a tight grip on the first spot and it is very unlikely this will change any time soon. But the rest of the field is pretty much up for grabs - while Model 3 has been covering the podium since 2019, the gap between it and competitors is narrowing. VW ID.4 was fairly close behind Model 3, and so was Skoda Enyaq - only a 20,000 vehicle difference between the three competitors.

Apart from the already established EVs, we have a bunch of newcomers vying to steal the limelight this year - there’s the Renault 5 with low price and high promises, Lancia Ypsilon wants the slice of the EV pie for itself as well. At the other end of the EV market, we have BMW with its growing sales and expanding portfolio of EV models. Citroen e-C3 will be the one to watch and if Volvo can step up the EX30 production - there will be commotion in the rankings.

Via