As explained today by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), this growth is partly due to the fact that there were two more selling days compared with the same month last year, when the Easter holidays fell in April. During the first four months of the year, new car registrations in the European Union (EU) increased by 6.6% to around 3.7 million units, with Germany and Spain posting strong growth of 7.8%, followed by France (+7.0%) and Italy (+6.1%). Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) took an almost 12% share of the EU car market in April, while plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) increased their share from 24.9% to 29.1%, as the combined share of petrol and diesel cars fell below half of the market, from 52.8% to 48.9%. Registrations of BEVs rose by 14.8% in April to 108,552 units, keeping their market share at around 12%. France and Belgium posted the strongest increases, with 45.2% and 41.6% respectively. From January to April, 441,992 new battery electric cars were registered, representing a 6.4% year-on-year increase. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles also posted strong growth, with registrations rising by 33.1% in April, led by France (+48.1%), Spain (+38.5%), Germany (+25.9%) and Italy (+22.8%), for a total of 265,992 units. This lifted the PHEV market share to 29.1%, compared with 24.9% in April 2023. Registrations of non-rechargeable hybrids increased by 3.7% last month. In April, hybrids accounted for 6.8% of the total car market, with 62,148 units sold. Sales of petrol cars rose by 7.3% to 328,967 in April, helped by double-digit gains in key markets such as Spain (+24.1%), Germany (+18.6%) and Italy (+14.1%). However, their market share decreased from 38.1% to 36.0% compared with the same month last year. Meanwhile, the diesel market remained flat at around 118,000 units, representing almost 13% of the market. Despite substantial drops in major markets such as Italy (-21.1%), Spain (-19.3%) and France (-18.1%), a significant increase in Germany (+28.2%) helped to offset these losses.