Low battery
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Slowed down by prices that are still too high, purchases of electric vehicles have been plummeting since the beginning of the year in the European Union. A threat for Brussels, which intends to end the sale of thermal cars in 2035.
For electric cars, 2024 was supposed to be a pivotal year on a global scale. Their market share was thus supposed to increase and approach the objectives set by manufacturers and public authorities, whose aim is to gradually replace thermal vehicles with their decarbonized sisters. However, the figures have been following one another and looking similar for several months. Between January and July, 815,399 battery-electric cars were sold in Europe, or 12.5% of vehicles, a decrease of 0.5 points compared to the same period last year. But in Europe, the share of sales of non-rechargeable hybrids, whose environmental utility is much lower, increased from 25.1% to 29.6% of all vehicles. The continent is therefore losing the pace of decarbonization of its transport, which represents almost a third of its greenhouse gas emissions.
“Reverse gear” in Germany
France is no exception. Even though sales of electric cars in the first half of 2024 increased by 15% compared to the same period last year, their share in the total number of new vehicles sold decreased from 12.9% to 12.5%. And the crisis accelerated in August: in a sluggish market, sales of electric cars plummeted by 33% over one year and their market share fell by 1
