Electric and hybrid vehicles continue to boom, gasoline and diesel are losing ground
After a slump in January, the number of new car registrations also fell in February. Compared to the same month last year, there were 19,863 cars in February 2021, 5.7 percent fewer new registrations, said Statistics Austria on Tuesday. In January the year-on-year decline was 38.4 percent.
While petrol and diesel are apparently continuing to decline in popularity, there is a steep upward trend in approvals for cars with alternative drives. In the case of purely electrically powered cars, the number of new registrations rose by 86.6 percent to 1,831 cars.
Hybrid cars were also booming. Gasoline-electric hybrids increased by 84.0 percent to 2,929 vehicles, while diesel-electric hybrids were registered for 1,067 vehicles or 128.0 percent more than in the same month of the previous year.
New registrations of diesel cars, on the other hand, fell by 37.4 percent to 5,181 compared to February 2020, while the decline in gasoline-powered cars was less drastic, at 8.9 percent to 8,842 vehicles.
Viewed by brand, Ford (plus 23.8 percent), Audi (plus 23.7 percent) and Seat (plus 7.7 percent) recorded increases, while the number of new registrations for models from Opel (minus 19.4 percent), Fiat (minus 16.8 percent), Mercedes (minus 15.3 percent), Renault (minus 11.6 percent), BMW (minus 9.7 percent), VW (minus 5.3 percent) and Skoda (minus 2.4 Percent) was down. In purely electric cars, Tesla (plus 49 percent) and VW (plus 345.2 percent) were ahead.
