Dealerships in Western Europe sold more electric cars than diesel ones in December 2021, Automotive News reports quoting a study by Schmidt Automotive Research. The researchers point out that the gap was bigger than 2 percent.
Electric vehicles accounted for 21 percent of the market in Europe, some studies claiming that the demand for them essentially doubled since 2020. Experts say government incentives, such as benefits and investments in infrastructure development, fueled the shift toward EVs, as did an expansion of the available offer. Environmental awareness of Old World residents was also mentioned among the reasons.
The above notwithstanding, the study made the liberty of including Norway into the statistics. Norway is not a formal part of the EU and has the largest share of EVs in Europe. Tesla led the EV popularity ranking despite having yet to launch its Gigafactory in Berlin, and Volkswagen was the second most popular electric car brand.