Sales of new cars in Europe in the first quarter of 2024.

To remind you, in Serbia, in the first three months of this year, based on data obtained from the Serbian Ministry of the Interior processed by Cube team, a strong growth in vehicle sales (passenger and light commercial vehicles) of 20.29 percent was recorded compared to the same period in 2023. A total of 7,493 vehicles were sold (1,264 more), and when it comes to passenger vehicles alone, the growth in the first quarter was 19.06 percent, with 5,965 passenger cars sold.

In the European Union, sales growth was 4.4 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. A total of 2,768,639 cars were sold. In January, sales growth was 12.1 percent (851,690 cars sold), in February 883,608 with a sales growth of 10.1 percent, and then in March, there was a decline in new car sales in the EU by 5.2 percent (1,031,875 cars), which is explained by non-working days due to Easter holidays. The decline in sales was recorded in all major EU markets. In Germany - 6.2 percent, in Spain - 4.7 percent, in Italy - 3.7 percent, in France - 1.5 percent.

In March, the market share of electric vehicles decreased from 13.9 percent in 2023 to 13 percent. The market share of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles sold increased from 24.4 to 29 percent. Sales of vehicles powered by petrol and diesel decreased from a 51.8 percent market share in 2023 to 47.8 percent in the first quarter of this year. Petrol cars accounted for 35.4 percent, while diesel cars only had a 12.4 percent market share.

Quarterly sales results of electric and hybrid (including plug-in hybrid) cars show that frequent newspaper reports of "significantly lower sales" are not accurate. In the first three months of this year, 332,999 electric vehicles were sold in the EU compared to 320,948 last year, representing a growth of 3.8 percent.

The largest quarterly growth was recorded in Cyprus + 77.5 percent, Slovakia + 50.9 percent, Belgium + 49.6 percent, Hungary + 38.6 percent, France + 23.1 percent.

Sales of plug-in hybrids increased by 7.5 percent quarterly (2023/24). In the first three months of this year, 204,001 vehicles with this propulsion were sold, compared to 189,768 in the same period last year.

The biggest growth was seen in cars with hybrid propulsion, a staggering 19.7 percent. 801,315 of these cars were sold, compared to 669,409 in the January-March 2023 period.

Cars powered by petrol as fuel were sold 1 percent less in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year. 980,477 petrol cars were sold this year, compared to 990,214 last year.

Diesels continue to disappear rapidly from European roads. The quarterly decline this year is 10.6 percent, with 355,352 diesel cars sold compared to 397,655 in the first three months of 2023.

Automobile powered by alternative fuels (hydrogen fuel cells, natural gas, LPG, and others) are experiencing a growth of 13.5%. During the first 3 months of 2024, 94,495 were sold, compared to 83,269 during the same period last year.

Interestingly, when looking at the overall sales of new cars in the first three months of this year in EU, EFTA (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland), and the UK, the sales growth is almost the same - 4.9 percent.

Germany remains the largest market with 694,785 cars sold in the first three months of this year, representing a growth of 4.2 percent compared to the first quarter of last year and 666,818 cars sold.

Regarding countries in our surroundings, in Bulgaria, 11,528 cars were sold in the first three months, which is a huge increase of 46.8 percent. In Croatia, 15,432 new cars were sold, an increase of 13.6 percent. Hungarians bought 31,673 new cars (an increase of 7.2 percent), Romanians bought fewer cars in the past quarter by as much as 10.1 percent - 33,228. Slovenia recorded a quarterly growth in sales compared to the same period in 2023 of 6.4 percent with sales of 13,993 cars.

Volkswagen is the largest seller with 273,460 cars sold in the first quarter of 2024. This is 1.1 percent more than in the same period last year. They are followed by Toyota with 212,307 (+ 16.0 percent), Skoda with 163,896 (+12.9), Peugeot with 161,372 (+0.04), BMW with 152,968 (+ 14.9), Renault with 144,163 (-3.0), Dacia with 140,998 (+3.0), Mercedes with 134,089 (- 4.2), Audi with 127,326 (-9.6).