Global electric vehicle (EV) sales exceeded 200,000 units per month for three consecutive months up to August.
The market has been recovering since April following the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to EV Volumes, a total of 247,000 units of EV, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were sold in August.
This is a rise of 57% from the same month a year ago.
Pure EV accounted for 64.8% of the units, followed by plug-in hybrid’s 34.8% and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle’s 0.3%.
Sales in Denmark grew 390% year over year to 3,474 units, followed by Italy’s 269.9% to 3,500 units and Germany’s 264.8% to 33,200 units. Sales in France increased 198.8% to 119,000 units and Belgium also saw an increase of 212.3% to 3,891 units.
South Korea saw 5,060 units sold in August, an increase of 72.2% year over year.
China was the largest market for green vehicles with 107,000 units in the month, an increase of 36.5% year over year. However, its sales of 590,677 units from the January to August was a decline of 26.8% from the same time period in 2019. This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Europe led the sales growth. Germany accumulated 165,368 units sold from January to August, a growth of 142.4% year over year. US was behind at 167,560 units, a decline of 17.1%.
Seven European countries were in the top ten in EV sales. South Korean ranked ninth at 36,341 units.
Northern Europe was the most active in launching new green cars. In Norway, seven out of ten new cars were green, followed by Iceland’s 40%, Sweden’s 25% and Finland’s 15%. Most European countries showed green car shares at over 10%, EV Volumes said, meaning on average one out of ten cars were green in the continent.
Last year, a total of 2.21 million units of green cars were sold, a growth of 10% from 2018. Tesla Model 3 was the best seller at 300,075 vehicles. BAIC EU series sold 111,047 units and Nissan Leaf 69,873 units.