Eurostat:1.45 million new battery-only electric cars registered in EU in 2024

In 2024, 1.45 million new battery-only electric passenger cars were registered in the EU, a decrease of 6.1 per cent compared with 2023 (1.55 million), the bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat said on July 30.

This brought the total number of battery-only electric cars to 5.87 million, representing an increase in the fleet of 32.4 per cent compared with 2023 (4.43 million).

The share of battery-only electric cars among all new registrations fell to 13.6 per cent in 2024, 1.0 percentage point (pp) below the level in 2023 (14.6 per cent).

This share had remained below one per cent until 2018, but grown notably in recent years, rising to 5.3 per cent in 2020, nine per cent in 2021 and 12.1 per cent in 2022.

While plug-in hybrid cars recorded a decline of 6.5 per cent, similar to battery-only electric passenger cars, the total number of new hybrid passenger cars increased by 12.7 per cent in 2024 (3.95 million) compared with 2023 (3.50 million).

The highest shares of battery-only electric cars in new registered cars were found in Denmark (51.3 per cent), Malta (37.7 per cent) and Sweden (34.9 per cent).

By contrast, the lowest recorded shares were in Croatia (1.8 per cent), Slovakia (2.4 per cent) and Poland (3.0 per cent).

Regarding other types of new battery-only electric vehicles, which are much fewer than new battery-only electric passenger cars, the number of new heavy lorries increased the most from 2023 to 2024, by 39.7 per cent, followed by road tractors (+35.5 per cent) and motor coaches and buses (+28.2 per cent), while there was a decrease for light lorries (-10.8 per cent).

Despite some significant increases, their total number showed a decrease of 6.8 per cent compared with 2023, Eurostat said.

(Photo: Eldrive)