For the first time, European sales of electric cars have overtaken diesel models.
According to figures from German electric car specialist Matthias Schmidt, compiled for the Financial Times, 176,000 electric cars were sold in Europe in December, a figure up 6% from last year, against 160,000 diesels.
To discover
SIMULATOR - Are you paid well?
Read alsoAlmost one in ten cars sold in France in 2021 was electric
Several reasons explain this enthusiasm for zero-emission cars, such as certain government subsidies offered to encourage the purchase of this type of vehicle.
For example, Germany offers a bonus of up to 9000 euros.
This bonus has also been renewed this year while the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz aims to reach 15 million electric cars on German roads by 2030. In France, the bonus remains at 6000 euros until July, 1st.
Measures against thermal vehicles
European automakers for their part pushed sales of electric vehicles in December in order to reduce their carbon footprint across their fleet and avoid fines from Brussels, recalls the Financial Times. Last spring, during the crisis in the supply chain and the shortage of chips, the brands had indeed prioritized the production of the most profitable models, mainly SUVs.
But beyond these incentives to turn to electric vehicles, certain measures against internal combustion engines have also been put in place, such as the announcement of the ban on the marketing of internal combustion engine vehicles in Europe from 2035 or even the prohibition in certain large cities, such as Paris in 2030, of the circulation of this type of car.
Read also
Le Figaro
traveled 700 km in an electric car, a real obstacle course
Moreover, according to Matthias Schmidt, this lack of interest in diesel is also one of the consequences of the "
dieselgate
" scandal. “
This descent into diesel hell has been repeated since September 2015 when dieselgate was first revealed, forcing Volkswagen to draw up plans for the ID3 within 30 days of the revelation of the scandal
”, he explains, referring to Volkswagen's flagship electric vehicle, on sale since 2020. The group is today the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles in Western Europe with the sale of 310,000 zero-carbon cars in 2021 out of the 3.5 million sold in total .
But this increased European interest in electric cars is also beneficial to the Tesla company, which sold no less than 1 million electric cars worldwide in 2021.
