BEV sales finally surpass PHEVs in True Fleet

Despite the strain of supply bottlenecks and the energy crisis, True Fleet sales managed to grow in Europe by 3.5% in 2022. 

However, plug-in hybrids rode the wave in the opposite direction (-3.4%), giving way to all-electric vehicles, which managed to triple their share (+34.3%).

As a result, of the 15 European markets monitored by Dataforce electrified vehicles, plug-in, hybrid and electric accounted for 27.7% of total sales.

Reaching 3,609,598 units (+ 3.5%), the True Fleet market witnessed its second consecutive year of growth (2021: +2.6%) after the dive during the pandemic in 2020 (-18.6%).

The electrification of fleets is continuing at a lightning pace.

• Nevertheless, petrol remains the most popular driveline, representing 38.4% of the market. The share grew by 4.60% to 1.389.294 units, higher than 2021 and 2020, both in absolute and relative terms. 
• Almost ten per cent fewer diesel cars were registered (-9.5%), meaning that the absolute figure sunk under the one million mark (948.332 units). 

Last year, BEVs leapfrogged over PHEVs for the first time in True Fleet. To be precise: 136,257 more BEVs were registered in the EU-15 last year, decisively outperforming PHEVs by 79,915 units.

• Registrations for battery-powered cars surged from 393,000 units in 2021 to 530,373 last year. This represents tenfold (34.5%) the share of 2019 (3.6%), demonstrating the steep adoption rate for BEVs.
• Many OEMs prioritised BEV production over PHEVs in 2022, which helps explain the latter’s decline (-3.4%).

Sales breakdown 2022 country by country

A closer look at the 12 key markets in Europe unveils that almost every country shows double-digit growth in adopting BEVs in True Fleet.

There are exceptions, as the decreasing numbers in the Netherlands (-9%) and Italy (-22%) show, two markets where PHEVs reported small gains (while their share is dwindling in half of the analysed markets). 

Poland (+77%) and Belgium (+78%) were the top multipliers in the sales of battery-powered cars. But it remains a marginal phenomenon in the Eastern European country, with a share reaching barely 5.1%.

Norway is still comfortably in the lead with a penetration of 80.6% EVs, though it lost 2.4% total share compared to 2021 due to a dramatic slump in PHEV sales (-66%).

On the BEV side, it was surpassed in absolute numbers by Sweden (33,400) and Belgium (29,529).

Germany is still home to the most extensive fleet market in the EU (868,474), but singling out BEVs, the country lacks 16,110 registrations to keep the UK (160,614) from bagging the title for the largest BEV market in True Fleet.

In 2022, the five big EU countries (Germany, the UK, France, Spain and Italy) accounted for over 70% of all EV sales (BEV and PHEV combined).
    

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