New car registrations in Europe faced a steady decline in April.
Volume fell from 1.34 million units in April 2019 to 292,600 vehicles in April 2020. This represents the lowest monthly level since the 1970’s, and the worst result among the big three markets – China, USA-Canada, and Europe. Europe’s sharp decrease was only outperformed by India (-100%). Year-to-date volume for India was also the lowest result recorded since JATO started to track registration data in 1980.
However, not every aspect of the automotive industry saw a downturn in April. Despite the all-encompassing lockdown that took hold in Q1 and the negative economic indicators, electrified vehicles continued to gain traction.
Their registrations totalled 50,400 units, making up 17% of total market share. Demand fell by 46% compared to April 2019 but it was mostly due to the hybrid cars, which saw a decline of 66% to 18,900 units.
Pure electric cars registered a decrease of 29% to 16,700 vehicles, while Plug-in hybrids saw almost 14,000 new clients, up by 7%.
The best overall car sales went to the VW Golf, the most hybrid was the Toyota Corolla, VW Passat PHEV took the lead and the Tesla Model 3 was the most popular EV.