The new Tesla Model 3 has shot to the top of European electric car registrations in its debut month.
The European car market registered its sixth consecutive month of decline in February 2019, as 1.14 million vehicles were registered.
This was largely because February marked a month of uncertainty for many of the bigger European markets, such as Spain, where registrations fell by 10% amongst political turmoil, and the Netherlands, where a change in tax on pure electric vehicles contributed to the 15% drop in overall registrations. The Swedish and Finnish markets also saw declines of 15% and 11%, respectively, as the two countries continued to struggle to come to grips with the introduction of WLTP.
Conversely, registrations were up by a huge 36% in Romania, due to the Government’s scrappage scheme in Q4-18, which led to an increase in vehicle deliveries in Q1-19. Denmark also recorded a strong result in February, with volume up by 8% due to an increase in its EV and PHEV registrations. This was mirrored in Norway, where nearly twice as many zero-emission cars were sold than in February 2018, and the Tesla Model 3 and VW e-Golf were the two best-selling cars.