European Market Monitor: Cars and Vans in 2024
This report analyzes the European car and van market during 2024, assessing passenger car and van registrations, electric vehicle (EV) adoption rates, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and the progress of charging infrastructure.
Passenger Car Registrations
The average share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) among new car registrations in Europe dipped slightly to 14% in 2024, down from 15% the previous year. KG Mobility boasted the highest BEV share at 37% within its manufacturer pool, and 49% in December alone. Tesla, which operates independently of the pools, achieved 100% BEV sales.
Volvo-Polestar-Suzuki ranked third with a 27% BEV share, a notable seven-percentage-point increase. Other manufacturers, like BMW (22%) and Mercedes-Benz (18%) posted above-average BEV shares. Some brands lagged in BEV sales but excelled in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). For example, Subaru-Mazda-Toyota (2% BEV) and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (8% BEV) achieved 65% and 23% HEV shares, respectively.
Volvo-Polestar-Suzuki and Ford dominated in the registration shares for mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs), achieving 47% and 41%, respectively. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) new registration share fell to 7% in 2024, a one-percentage point decrease.
CO2 emissions among new passenger car registrations in the reported period fell, averaging 108 g CO2/km in 2024 and 103 g CO2/km in December. According to estimates, all manufacturer pools met their 2024 targets. Volvo-Polestar-Suzuki showed the greatest over-compliance, exceeding its target by 50 g CO2/km.
Passenger Car Registrations by Country
Passenger car registrations in Europe increased slightly in 2024, reaching just over 10.8 million new cars. While Poland saw a 16% increase in registrations, Sweden experienced a 7% decline. Combined BEV and PHEV market shares averaged 22% in Europe, a decrease of one percentage point from the previous year. Norway led with a 92% share of combined BEV and PHEV registrations.
Belgium saw the most significant growth in BEV registrations compared to 2023, while the Netherlands saw BEV registrations reach 47% in December. Conversely, BEV registrations in Germany dropped significantly, likely influenced by the phase-out of government subsidies.
Passenger Car Registrations by Owner
In 2024, private cars made up over 40% of new registrations in Europe, followed by company fleets (36%) and car dealers and manufacturers (14%).
Van Registrations
Over 1.5 million new vans were registered in Europe in 2024, a 7% increase from the previous year. Battery electric vans made up 6% of new van registrations for the year. Volkswagen and other manufacturers had BEV van shares of 8%, but the Renault-Nissan and Ford pools remained below the European average. All van manufacturers met their CO2 targets.
Charging Infrastructure Development
By the end of 2024, over 950,000 public charging points were installed in Europe, up from approximately 700,000 at the end of 2023. Direct Current (DC) charging points saw the most significant growth (+61%). Norway, with the highest BEV market share, also showed the largest growth in DC chargers. The EU average was about 6.5 22 kW-equivalent publicly accessible charging points installed by the end of December 2024 per thousand passenger cars and vans.
