BMW knocks Tesla off its throne in electric car registrations in Europe

In July, BMW overtook long-term leader Tesla in the European registration figures for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). In total, BMW put exactly 308 more electric cars on the road with its electric models such as the iX1, i4 and i5 than the US company with its two volume models Model Y and Model 3. The Bavarian car manufacturer increased its sales by a third (35 per cent) compared to July 2023 thanks to a broadening electric range. The iX1 was the most popular electric BMW with 4,305 sales.

However, in the BEV model ranking, which was broken down by individual model series, this is not enough to beat Tesla. No BEV was registered more frequently in Europe in July than the Tesla Model Y: a total of 9,544 new units hit the roads. Although this is enough to put it ahead of the Volvo EX30 (6,573) and the VW ID.4 (5,295), it was 16 per cent more a year earlier. Tesla’s sister model, the Model 3, also plummeted by 17 per cent to 4,694 sales.

While demand for cars in Europe generally rose slightly in July (+2% YoY), interest in electric cars declined somewhat (139,300 BEVs, -6% YoY), which is reflected in reduced market penetration: The EV share of registrations in Europe fell from 14.6 per cent in July 2023 to 13.5 per cent last month.

It has been clear for some months now that BMW has a lot to look forward to in the electric car market. The share of electric vehicles in the BMW Group’s total sales is steadily increasing: In Q2, 17.4 per cent of all BMW Group vehicles delivered were already purely electric, a significant increase compared to Q2 2023 (14.1 per cent), but also compared to the first quarter of 2024 (13.9 per cent). The absolute figures and relative changes are shown in the following table

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Source: BMW Group

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