European Carmakers Call for Urgent Action as EV Sales Crash

Battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations in the European Union tumbled by 44% in August from a year earlier as all new car sales slumped by 18%, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, ACEA, said on Thursday, calling for urgent action to reverse this year’s trend of declining EV sales.

ACEA data showed that registrations of BEVs plunged by 43.9% to 92,627 units in August 2024, compared to 165,204 BEVs registered in the same month last year. The total market share of BEVs dipped to 14.4% from 21% a year earlier.

“This was driven by the spectacular drop in the two biggest markets for BEV cars: Germany (-68.8%) and France (-33.1%),” ACEA said today.

In a separate press release, the European auto manufacturers, united in ACEA, “call on the EU institutions to come forward with urgent relief measures before new CO2 targets for cars and vans come into effect in 2025.”

Commenting on the EU’s declining EV sales, ACEA said that Europe’s automakers “are playing our part in this transition, but unfortunately, the other necessary elements for this systemic shift are not in place.”

The ACEA Board stated, “We are missing crucial conditions to reach the necessary boost in production and adoption of zero-emission vehicles: charging and hydrogen refilling infrastructure, as well as a competitive manufacturing environment, affordable green energy, purchase and tax incentives, and a secure supply of raw materials, hydrogen and batteries.”

“Economic growth, consumer acceptance, and trust in infrastructure have not developed sufficiently either,” the board of the association noted.

With lower EV sales than expected, major carmakers in the U.S. and Europe are scaling back production of electric vehicles amid overcapacity and are rethinking their ambitious EV sales goals.

Rising concerns about EV capital costs, uncertainties around a number of elections this year, especially in the U.S., and a shortage of rapid-charging stations are the three key factors slowing the EV momentum, Goldman Sachs Research analyst Kota Yuzawa said in May.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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