Tesla’s dominance in the EV market was confirmed in Europe, where the Model Y won September’s bestseller title with 29,367 units, up 227% in sales compared to the same month last year.
Model Y significantly outsold popular brands, including even the Volkswagen Golf in the German domestic market. However, the Tesla Model Y was the only electric car in the top 10 sales for September. Four places were taken by superminis, and three by crossovers. At the same time, Tesla Model Y sales more than doubled those of Model 3. Perhaps this is due to a supply problem, because Model 3 is assembled in China, unlike Model Y, which is produced in Europe. However, the Model 3 was the second best-selling electric car in Europe in September, well ahead of the VW ID.4 (6,547 units), the electric FIAT 500 (5,078) and the Dacia Spring (4,846), which made the top five.
In September, the European market grew for the second month in a row, with a total of 1,038,481 vehicles (+7.5% compared to September 2021), according to JATO. Moreover, 160,869 of them turned out to be fully electric (BEV), which corresponds to 15.6% of the total number registered. Interestingly, one in four electric cars sold in Europe this September was a Tesla. Plug-in hybrids posted a more modest 7% year-over-year growth of 87,712 vehicles.
The top three markets in Europe remain Germany (27%), the UK (24%) and France (14%), all of which are up year-over-year. But despite the optimistic results, the European market is still falling short of pre-pandemic levels. For comparison, the total number of registrations in Europe, from January to September 2022, amounted to 8,182,818 cars, which is 32% less than in the same period in 2019. As Felippe Muñoz, Global Analyst at JATO Dynamics, noted, “Over the past three years, the market has lost one million units per quarter, but despite this, most manufacturers have already adapted to the new reality.”
