European car market sees robust growth whereas US vehicle registrations decrease in April 2024
May 22, 2024
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, has reported that in April 2024, the European Union car market grew by 13.7%, with new registrations totalling 913,995 units. In the USA, however, vehicle registrations in April decreased by 3.45% compared to April 2023, according to data published by Countryeconomy.com. In total, 1,351,454 vehicles were registered in the US in April.
EU car registrations
The growth in EU registrations was reported to be driven by strong increases across all major markets: Spain (+23.1%), Germany (+19.8%), France (+10.9%), and Italy (+7.7%).
In April 2024, battery-electric car registrations rose by 14.8% to 108,552 units, with their market share holding steady at around 12%. France and Belgium saw significant increases of 45.2% and 41.6%, respectively, while Germany remained stable (-0.2%). From January to April, a total of 441,992 new battery-electric cars were registered, marking a 6.4% increase from the previous year.
Hybrid-electric cars also saw robust growth with registrations up 33.1% in April. The largest markets for this segment, France (+48.1%), Spain (+38.5%), Germany (+25.9%), and Italy (+22.8%), all recorded double-digit increases, with registrations totalling 265,992 units. This pushed the hybrid-electric market share to 29.1%, up from 24.9% in April 2023.
Plug-in hybrid car registrations saw a modest increase of 3.7% last month. While Belgium experienced a significant decline of 17.6% and France remained stable (-0.1%), Germany’s strong performance, with a 28.4% increase, helped balance the segment. In April, plug-in hybrids accounted for 6.8% of the total car market, with 62,148 units sold.
Petrol car sales increased by 7.3% to 328,967, driven by double-digit gains in key markets such as Spain (+24.1%), Germany (+18.6%), and Italy (+14.1%). However, their market share declined from 38.1% to 36% compared to the same month the previous year. Meanwhile, the diesel car market remained steady at around 118,000 units, accounting for nearly 13% of the market. Despite substantial declines in major markets like Italy (-21.1%, Spain (-19.3%), and France (-18.1%), a significant increase in Germany (+28.2%) helped to offset these losses.
Fewer registrations in the United States
In the USA, April showed a decrease of 3.45% in vehicle registrations when compared to April 2023. In total, 1,351,454 vehicles were registered.
Of this total, the breakdown of vehicle sales showed that commercial vehicles sold were 1,089,945, 2 % less than in April of 2023. Passenger car registrations in the month were 261,509, some 9% less than in April of 2023.
So far this year, United States sales have totalled 5,217,019, according to new motor vehicle registration figures provided by Countryeconomy.com.
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