Last month, BMW surpassed Tesla in electric vehicle sales in Europe for the first time. BMW remains the market leader despite a slowdown in electric vehicle sales in the region. Electric vehicle sales are on the rise, and BMW is closing the gap on Tesla in the EU.
According to the latest data from Jato Dynamics, 1.03 million vehicles were registered in Europe last month, up 2% from 2018. Growth was led by other EU markets, despite declines in sales in Germany (-2%), France (-2%) and Belgium (-7%).
Portugal (+19%), Poland (+19%) and Slovakia (+12%) drove sales growth, while the UK (+3%), Italy (+5%) and Spain (+5%) saw more moderate growth.
July saw a new record for SUVs with 554,000 registrations, up 6% from a year ago. Growth was led by BMW, Toyota, Mercedes and Volvo's parent company Geely. Meanwhile, Volkswagen was the top seller with a 26% share, followed by Hyundai (including Kia) with 12%.
Luxury SUVs (F-SUVs) led the growth, with registrations increasing 32% year-on-year to 5,022 units. Large SUVs increased 23% (27,600 units), while registrations of mid-size models were down 7% (106,500 units) last month.
New BMW i4 M50 xDrive (Source: BMW)
BMW leads EV sales growth, surpassing Tesla for the first time
Electric vehicle sales in Europe fell 6% year-on-year in July 2024, according to data from Jato. 139,300 new cars were registered last month, with EV market share falling to 13.5% from 14.6% in July 2023.
BMW topped European EV sales for the first time last month, growing its EV sales by 35% to 14,869 units. Tesla came in second with 14,561 registrations, followed by Volkswagen (12,213), Volvo (10,533) and Audi (8,618).
Europe's best-selling EV models in July 2024 (Source: Jato Dynamics)
BMW's latest models, the iX1, i4 and i5, saw strong growth, with the new iX2 recording more than 1,300 registrations.
The iX1 and i4 were the 6th and 7th best EVs in Europe last month, with registrations of 4,305 units (up 25% year-on-year) and 4,198 units (up 23% year-on-year) respectively.
Despite a 16% year-on-year drop in registrations, Tesla's Model Y remained the best-selling EV in Europe last month, with 9,544 units sold.
Best-selling EV brands in Europe in July 2024 (Source: Jato Dynamics)
Another highlight of the report is Volvo's growing market share, taking the lead with a 5.5% increase in market share, followed by BMW with 3.2%. Volvo's new EX30 was the second best-selling EV in Europe with 6,573 registrations in July.
Tesla registrations fell 16% to 14,561 units, but the company still holds a commanding lead year-to-date: Tesla has sold 178,700 vehicles in Europe through July, compared with 97,525 for BMW and 88,445 for VW.
Tesla's new Model 3 Performance (Photo courtesy of Tesla)
Tesla remains the clear leader through the first seven months of 2024, while BMW, Volvo and others are gaining market share.
Electrek's take
As new models were released to the market, Tesla's market share was bound to decline. The same thing happened in the US, where Tesla's market share fell below 50% for the first time.
Tesla has been updating its vehicles with the launch of the new Model 3 Highland and a Model Y refresh that was recently leaked.
More recently, Tesla was spotted testing a cheaper interior version of the Model 3 in Mexico, with prices starting at around $35,000 (749,000 pesos). Could it be coming to other markets like Europe and the US?
Tesla also launched the Cybertruck, which is not available in Europe, but is proving popular in the US, where it was the fifth best-selling EV in the second quarter.
The Cybertruck surpassed the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T to become America's best-selling electric pickup truck in the second quarter.
Source: Bloomberg, Jato Dynamics
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