FRANKFURT: More all-electric cars were registered in Germany last year than the European Union average, according to new government figures released on Tuesday.

German news agency dpa reported that the proportion of new registrations in Germany was 18.4 percent, above the EU-wide average of 14.6 percent, according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office.

The share in Germany of electric vehicles in 2023 was 0.6 percentage points higher than in the previous year. This trend has not continued so far this year, as Germany’s Motor Transport Authority reported that only 12.7 percent of new cars registered between January and August of the current year have an all-electric drive.

EU figures show a clear north-south divide over the adoption of electric vehicles, with Sweden, Denmark and Finland leading the way, where electric vehicles make up more than a third of all newly registered cars. In contrast, the fewest new electric cars were registered in Croatia (2.6 percent) and Slovakia (2.9 percent).

Norway (81.2
percent) and Iceland (52.8 percent), which are not members of the EU, remain the European countries with the highest proportion of electric registrations. Regardless of the drive type, Germany has a comparatively high proportion of very new cars – 14.8 percent of the country’s roughly 49.1 million cars are less than two years old. Only the small and wealthy Luxembourg achieves a higher rate with 19 percent. There are particularly high numbers of old cars in Romania, Finland and Estonia, where every third car is more than 20 years old.

Source: Emirates News Agency