European car sales are likely to grow again in 2022 with the alleviation of the microchip crisis that has been hampering the industry in the past couple of years.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said that passenger car registrations in the EU’s 27 member states are expected to increase by 7.9 percent to 10.5 million units.
However, the figure remains nearly 20 percent below the 2019 pre-pandemic level as the dearth of semiconductors (which power almost everything from anti-lock braking systems (ABS) to airbags to parking assistance technology) led sales to crash last year.
Registrations of new passenger cars declined by 2.4 percent to 9.7 million units in 2021 but the ACEA expects the chip shortage to ‘stabilize’ this year. The prediction came as the EU unveiled a proposal on Tuesday to invest tens of billions of euros to enhance European production of the semiconductor and scale back its reliance on Asian imports.
“In light of the European Chips Act to be published today, ACEA is therefore urging the EU to reduce its reliance on overseas suppliers to avoid such damage to strategic European industries in the future,” the association stated.
Since fossil fuel vehicles were impacted by the shortages, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles acquired the market share and now account for nearly one out of five new automobiles sold in the European Union, according to the ACEA.
“However, we cannot forget that this is still quite a fragile market,” said President of ACEA, Oliver Zipse, who is also the Chief Executive of the BMW Group.
He explained that the market “is highly reliant on support measures such as purchase incentives and, above all, the widespread availability of charging infrastructure”.
“The pace of infrastructure rollout is lagging way behind consumer demand for electrically-chargeable cars,” the ACEA warned, with electric car sales increasing four times faster than charging port installation.
National governments and the European Parliament are pondering continental standards for charging stations as the European Commission plans to phase out new petrol and diesel vehicle sales by 2035.
The ACEA has also asked the European Parliament and national governments to support the European Commission’s proposal for an Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation which is “to ensure that Europe builds a sufficiently dense network of charging and refueling infrastructure”.
