Average market share improved to 2.5%

The European plug-in electric car market noted healthy growth in 2018, and that’s despite many plug-in hybrid models being retired in September because of the new WLTP-certification requirements (manufacturers apparently considered them too costly to comply for older low-range PHEVs).

In December, some 40,564 passenger plug-in cars were registered, which is 23% more year-over-year at a high 3.9% market share.

Two thirds of those sales (66%) were all-electric cars, which also noted 70% growth, compared to a 20% decline for plug-in hybrids.

Plug-In Electric Car Sales In Europe – December 2018

In 2018, total registrations amounted 386,347 (up 33%) at average market share of 2.5%. It’s a new all-time record and because new models are coming (especially Tesla Model 3, but not only) the expectations for 2019 are high – maybe 500,000?

51% of new passenger plug-ins were BEVs, which also increased 48% year-over-year to almost 200,000. Plug-in hybrids managed to increase about 20%.

Most popular models

The best-selling model was the Nissan LEAF with 40,609 registrations, but in the last months the advantage over the second-best Renault ZOE (38,538) shrunk. Moreover, with registrations of commercial versions of ZOE, the two were almost at the same level.

Three more cars exceeded 20,000 sales: BMW i3 (23,432), Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (23,921 – best PHEV) and Volkswagen e-Golf (21,252).

Tesla Model S and Model X were #6 (16,682) and #9 (12,694). Jaguar I-PACE was late to the party, but grabbed the #21 spot (6,319) with the fourth best result in December (2,983).

Registration stats for Europe are provided by  EV Sales Blog:

Sales in U.S. are still higher than in Europe for several months now, but for 2018 Europe was bigger market (386,347 vs about 361,307):