Tesla Model 3 is the best-selling car in Europe

Tesla’s Model 3 is the first electric car to top the general sales list. This is a success for the electric car manufacturer, albeit under the impression of a further reduction in sales compared to the same month last year.

As a result of the global shortage of chips, the number of new registrations fell to just 964,800 units in September. However, this does not lead to a decline in car sales overall, but only to a drop in new car registrations and a shift towards the used car market.

So far this year, the 26 European markets have continued to perform better compared to 2020. However, the gap narrows as the year progresses. At the end of the first half of the year, total registrations were still 27 percent higher than in the first half of 2020. The results up to September show that this gap has narrowed to just seven percent the analysis company Jato before.

The upturn in electric vehicles alone is continuing. Diesel vehicles, on the other hand, experience a real crash in the sales statistics. This has to do with the perception of the climate crisis on the one hand, but also with the fact that manufacturers have to decide which of their vehicles they want to supply with the scarcer chip resources on the other. It is understandable that this competition is primarily won by electric cars, which are also attractive thanks to government subsidies.

In September, low-emission vehicles – electric vehicles and hybrids – recorded a monthly increase of 44 percent to 221,500 units, while registrations of diesel vehicles fell by 51 percent to 167,000 units. Before the pandemic, according to Jato, there were 10.3 newly registered diesel vehicles for every electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle. Today this ratio has dropped to just 1.3.

In September, the Tesla Model 3 was able to benefit in a special way from these shifts. The US manufacturer’s most affordable electric car achieved a market share of 2.6 percent with 24,600 registered units. This is both the first time an electric car has topped the market and the first time a vehicle made outside of Europe has taken first place.

The Model 3’s strong performance is partly explained by Tesla’s intense sales spurt at the end of the quarter. September is traditionally a strong month for the US manufacturer’s approval results in Europe. Model Y has also done well since entering the European market. It can secure second place in the Stromer ranking.

Thanks to the success of these two models, Tesla leads the Stromer market with a share of 24 percent. It is followed by the Volkswagen Group with 22, Stellantis with 13 and Hyundai-Kia with just under eleven percent. Tesla also sold absolutely more new cars than established brands like Fiat, Nissan or Seat.