Volkswagen Group became Europe’s leading supplier of electric cars in the first half of the year, beating Stellantis and Tesla, as buyers turned to new models such as the VW ID4 SUV.
The runaway best-selling model over the period, however, was the Tesla Model 3, with 66,734 sales, more than double the second-placed VW ID3.
Strong growth boosted EV registrations 124 percent to 483,304 units in the half, according to data for 18 western Europe countries compiled by Berlin-based EV market analyst Matthias Schmidt.
The growth was largely driven by Germany, now Europe’s largest EV market by sales, after the country’s market share of full-electric cars expanded to 11 percent from 3.7 percent during the same period last year.
Germany accounted for 31 percent of all electric cars sold across western Europe at 148,716 over the period.