In March, new passenger car registrations in the EU experienced a 5.2 percent decline, totaling 1.03 million fewer cars compared to the same period in 2023, marking the first downturn this

year. This information was reported by the European car manufacturers' association ACEA on Thursday.

ACEA attributed the decline in new car registrations to the timing of the Easter holidays. Notably, while electric cars are losing market share in Europe overall, Belgium stands out as an exception.

According to ACEA, Belgium witnessed a 13.5 percent decrease, or 44,751 fewer new passenger car registrations in March. Among the four largest markets, Germany experienced the most significant decline at 6.2 percent, followed by Spain at 4.7 percent, Italy at 3.7 percent, and France at 1.5 percent.

In Europe, the market share of fully electric cars decreased in March, dropping from 13.9 percent to 13 percent compared to the same period last year. Conversely, the share of hybrid cars increased from 24.4 percent to 29 percent. Meanwhile, the combined market share of petrol and diesel cars decreased from 51.8 percent to 47.8 percent, still representing less than half of all registrations.

Contrary to the European trend, Belgium saw a notable increase in registrations for fully electric cars, rising by 23.8 percent, equivalent to 11,711 vehicles, in March of this year. Photo by jurvetson (Steve Jurvetson), Wikimedia commons.