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Europe Electric Vehicle Registrations Jump 39 Percent in 2017

The drive to support electric vehicles in Europe does yield results, data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association show. In 2017, government incentives, as well as the market introduction of several models of cars powered by alternative fuels or electricity, made the number of Europeans who choose these types of cars to rise by 39,7 percent.
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Overall, there have been 852,933 alternative fuel vehicles registered in the European Union last year. The most sought-after type of alternative cars are the hybrid electric ones, which represented 54.8 percent of the total, followed by full electric vehicles, which accounted for 39 percent.

Still, the considerable rise in registrations still leaves alternative-powered vehicles at the bottom of the overall market. All the cars sold last year in this segment only accounted for 5.7 percent of the total European market last year.

As per countries, the most successful one to promote electric or hybrid vehicles proved to be Spain, where an increase of nearly 100 percent in registrations was recorded compared to the previous year.

Spain is followed closely by Germany, with a 76.8 percent increase, the United Kingdom with 35.6 percent increase and France, rising 30.7 percent compared to the previous year.

Overall, 15,57 million cars were sold in 2017 on the Old Continent, the highest volume of registrations since 2007. 2017 saw the lowest number of diesel car registrations in more than a decade: 6,76 million, a decline of 7,9 percent compared to the previous year.

The drop in interest for diesel vehicles meant the number of gasoline-powered cars rose by 760,000 units or 10,9 percent.

Volkswagen's Golf, with 480,000 units sold, was the top performer and the best selling car in Europe last year. More than half of the nearly half a million registrations were in two countries: Germany and the UK.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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