The battery-electric car (BEV) has rounded for the first time the cape of 15% market share in Belgium in the first quarter of 2023. The fully electric Tesla Model Y became the third most-sold car overall with 3 140 units, just after the Toyota Yaris (3 141) and the favorite of the Belgians, the ‘home-made’ Volvo XC40 (3 231). One-third (1 143) of the latter was fully electric, 1 258 PHEV.

The steep growing curve of BEVs is fueled clearly by the company cars, as shown by the latest figures from the car federation Febiac. Here the share was 21,4% in the nearing prospect of the obligation for all new company cars to be zero-emission by 2026.

Diese furhter in bad grace

But range anxiety still pushes companies primarily to PHEVs (24%). Private drivers are far more hesitant, with only 5% of BEVs registered and 4,1% of PHEVs. Regarding replacing his car, the Belgian still massively chooses gasoline (68,3%), eventually seduced by the carmakers’ ceaseless promotion of the HEV mild hybrids (13,1%).

Diesel (7,6%) is definitely in lousy grace with them, while companies still register 13,2%. There, gasoline cars only represent 36,6%. When considering all sectors together, ICE cars (77 169 gasoline and diesel cars out of 131 484) only represent 58,6% of newly registered cars in Q1 2023, while this was still 85% in 2020.

LPG is still an alternative for a minority of private drivers (1,9%), while natural gas (27 cars) is on the verge of extinction. Only the hydrogen car scored worse, with a mere two registered.

With 131 484 new vehicles registered, the car market in Belgium is recovering from a couple of bad years due to corona and worldwide shortages of parts. Still, it is 9 863 units under the average sales in Q1 in the past ten years. Most new cars went to companies (86 481), an increase of 35,5%. Private sales saw an increase of 14% compared with the same period in 2022.

Chinese offensive

According to Febiac, the breakthrough of electric cars positively affects the average CO2 emissions of newly sold vehicles, with 95 g per 10 km sinking below the psychological threshold of 100 gr (WLTP). In 2020, when the WLTP standard was issued, this still was 130,7 g/100 km.

Another remarkable side effect in the margin is Chinese electric cars’ quiet but unstoppable offensive. Although all of them together (Aiways, BAIC, BYD, DFSK, FAW, JAC, Lynk & Co, Maxus, MG, Nio, and SWM) still have a minor share of 1,31% in Q1 2023, it’s already more than double that of 0,59% at the end of March 2022.