Europe's Car Sales Slide Shows EU's BEV Plans Are Not Working: ACEA

European car sales fell again in November, canceling the previous month's small growth with major slumps in battery-electric-vehicle sales recorded in France, Italy and Germany.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Assn. (ACEA) suggests the slump in BEV sales shows the European Union’s plans to mandate an all-electric automotive future, attempting to force consumers into powertrain technologies, may look great “on paper” but don’t work in the real world.

ACEA director general Sigrid de Vries tells Reuters: “The transition was worked out on paper. On paper, it may be picture-perfect but reality is different. In Europe, we have a couple of issues. We have very costly energy and electricity prices. We don't have the raw materials (or) the supply chain that we need for electrification yet in Europe itself.”

ACEA’s data for November shows the continued slowdown in BEV sales is only being partly offset by consumers turning to hybrid vehicles, which outsold gasoline vehicles for the third month in a row.

The number of new vehicles registered in November in the European Union, U.K. and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) fell 2% year-on-year to 1.06 million.

Sales of BEVs were down 9.5% in November making up just 15% of sales, down from 16.3% for the same month in 2023 in the EU, driven by sharp declines in France and Germany, while those of hybrid cars rose 18.5% to form 33.2% of sales, beating gasoline accounting for 30.6% of overall sales.

Diesel-powered cars took 10.6% of sales while plug-in hybrids held 7.6% of overall sales for the month.

According to the ACEA, BEV declines were driven by a significant decrease in registrations in Germany, down 21.8%, and France, down 24.4%. It resulted in a year-to-date market volume 5.4% lower than the same period last year, with the total market share now at 13.4%.

Plug-in hybrid car registrations fell 8.8% last month, following significant declines in France, down 19.6%; Belgium, down 61.4%; and Italy, down 31.4%.

Industry analysts blame PHEVs' declining fortunes on fewer fleet sales where users failed to charge vehicles at their own cost, increasing fuel consumption over both hybrid and internal-combustion-engine vehicles owing to the heavier battery packs used.

Also, limited electric-only range of around 50 miles (80 km) would not be adequate for most commercial users.

With ICE sales, France experienced the steepest drop, with registrations plummeting 31.5%, followed by Italy with a 12.3% decline while Germany fell 5.4% and Spain dropped by 2.3%.