Electric Vehicle Haters Won't Like This News

Battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are no longer a niche segment. The latter hasn't been for a few years and the coronavirus pandemic has increased the development and launch rate of the former. Governments throughout the world have been announcingend datesfor sales of internal combustion vehicles andautomakers are eager to jointhe EV bandwagon. But already EVs and PHEVs are making a sales impact, specifically in Europe.

Reuters reports that one in every nine new cars sold in that continent last year was one of the two powertrain types. This resulted in a 12 percent decrease in average C02 emissions in 2020 when compared to the year prior.

That was the biggest annual emissions drop in vehicles sold since the EU introduced its first passenger car C02 standards in 2010. A total of 11.6 million new cars were registered in Europe (including the UK, Norway, and Iceland) and 11 percent were either an EV or PHEV. In 2019, that number was only 3.5 percent.

A contributing factor to the electrified vehicle increase were EV tax subsidies two of Europe's biggest economies, France and Germany, added to their Covid economic aid packages. Consumers opted to take full advantage. Currently, Europe's best-selling pure battery-electric model is the Renault Zoe, a cheap EV that isn't sold in the US.