New car sales in Europe rise for fifth month helped by EVs

Dec 23 (Reuters) - New car sales in Europe rose year-on-year in November for a fifth consecutive month, helped by an increase in EV registrations in markets including Germany, Italy and Spain, data from the European auto lobby ACEA showed on Tuesday.

Battery electric registrations, a proxy for sales, reached a market share of 21% in the European Union, 26% in the United Kingdom and 98% in Norway.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Europe's car industry faces challenges, including competition from China, U.S. import tariffs and difficulties in profitably meeting domestic regulations for EV adoption.

The European Commission last week made public a plan to abandon an effective 2035 ban on combustion engine cars after pressure from the region's auto sector, marking the bloc's biggest retreat from its green policies in recent years.

But analysts said for the longer term, EVs are the future.

BY THE NUMBERS 

Sales in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association rose 2.4% to 1.1 million cars in November, ACEA data showed. 

Registrations at Volkswagen and Renault rose 4.1% and 3% year-on-year, respectively, while they fell 2.7% at Stellantis, a drop after three months of growth.

Tesla registrations fell by 11.8%, as record sales in Norway mitigated losses in other markets. They were up 221.8% at its Chinese competitor BYD. Tesla's market share in the month was 2.1%, while BYD's 2%.

Total EU car sales rose 2.1% to almost 900,000 vehicles. Registrations of battery electric, hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid cars were up 44.1%, 38.4% and 4.2%, respectively, to account collectively for 65.6% of the bloc's registrations, up from 56% in August 2024. 

KEY QUOTE

"Despite the recent positive momentum, overall volumes remain well below pre-pandemic levels," the ACEA said in a statement.

(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi; editing by Barbara Lewis)