EU new car registrations for September stay on downward trend

EU new car registrations in September were mainly dampened by poor figures from France, Italy and Germany. Once again, Spain bucked the trend.

New car registrations within the European Union fell -6.1% in September mainly dragged down by Italy, France and Germany, according to the most recent data from the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA).

Italy faced a -10.7% decline in new car registrations in September, whereas France experienced a -11.1% drop. Germany also followed this trend, with a 7% fall in new car registrations last month. However, Spain bucked the trend, with new car registrations growing 6.3% in September.

Similarly, Germany also experienced a -1% decline in new car registrations for the first nine months of the year, along with France, where they dropped -1.8%. On the other hand, Italian new car registrations rose 2.1% for this period, along with Spain’s, at 4.7%.

In September 2024, 29.8% of the EU car market was taken up by petrol cars, whereas diesel cars made up 10.4%. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 17.3%, whereas hybrid electric vehicles made up 32.8% of the market. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) took up 6.8% of the EU automotive market.

Battery electric car registrations jump in September

In September 2024, new battery-electric car registrations increased 9.8% to 139,702 units, most likely because of tightening environmental regulations around Europe.

However, the increase in September was not enough to offset the 5.8% fall in new battery vehicle market volume in the first nine months of the year. This is potentially because of the price barrier still being a hurdle for first-time owners.

With the EU recently having raised tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs) being imported into the bloc from China, battery electric vehicles could become even more expensive in the coming months.

Similarly, hybrid electric car registrations jumped 12.5% last month, with the market share for these also rising from 27.4% last September to 32.8% in September 2024.

Conversely, plug-in hybrid electric car registrations fell -22.3% in September, with all key markets lagging. The market share for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles also dropped from 8.2% in September 2023 to 6.8% last month, accounting for 54,889 units.

Petrol car sales plunge in September

Sales for petrol cars plummeted 17.9% in September 2024, dragged down by poor performance across all major markets. Italy saw petrol car sales drop -23.3%, with Germany seeing a decline of -15.2%. Similarly, French petrol car sales also decreased -31.9%, along with Spanish petrol car sales, which fell -10.7%.

The market share for petrol cars dropped from 34% in September 2023 to 29.8% in September 2024.