Europe’s electric and plug-in hybrid car sales boosted to over 1 million

Sales of the electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles increased in Europe last year even as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted overall vehicle sales, according to the European Environment Agency said on Tuesday.

The increase in electric car sales resulted in a 12% decline in average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in Europe last year, compared to 2019, reversing a trend that had seen such emissions boost for three consecutive years.

It was the biggest yearly decline in such emissions since the EU brought car CO2 standards in 2010.

With 11.6 million new cars registered in the EU, Iceland, Norway, and Britain last in 2020, about 11% were fully electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Those automobiles have tripled their share of new car sales, from 3.5% in 2019.

While overall new car sales decline, the electric and plug-in hybrid car sales in Europe increased to more than 1 million in 2020.