New Belux record in EV registrations in 2024 (+37.3%)

In 2024, 127,922 new EVs were registered in Belgium and Luxembourg, which is 37.3% more than the year before and a new record. Individual buyers more than doubled their EV purchase: +104.7%. On the second-hand market, however, an oversupply of EVs results in residual values that are too low.

Filip Rylant, spokesperson of sector federation Traxio, says, “The European EV market is severely under pressure, but on the Belgian market, all records were broken in 2024.” The market share for newly registered EVs in Belgium reached an all-time high of 28.5%. Although the second-hand market also grew by 45.2%, the numbers are still relatively small and represent only 3.2% of the entire (booming) market. This makes the EV market for new cars five times bigger than the second-hand market.

Flemish premium had impact

Individual buyers showed more interest in EVs, and that is mainly due to the Flemish premium (€5,000 for new cars under 40,000 euros, €3,000 for second-hand cars, also with a price limit). That’s why Flanders represents 81.5% of all new EVs sold and 75.1% of all second-hand electric cars. The question is how this will evolve now that the premium is dead and buried.

New EVs

The positive evolution in EV sales is mainly due to the rapidly growing number of registrations in the company car sector. 86.5% of all new EV registrations were done through leasing and company cars. Nevertheless, individual buyers more than doubled their purchases of EVs, from 8,445 to 17,289 units.

Second-hand EVs

In the second-hand market, there is quite another evolution. Growth may be even higher (+86.7%), but the absolute numbers are much lower (23,515 cars in total). The leasing/company car ratio and individual buyer is almost equal here: 51.5% compared to 48.5%.  Here also, the disappearance of the Flemish premium will have a negative impact for this year.

A more critical problem in this market is the oversupply. There is no East or South European market for second-hand EVs yet. The rotation speed for second-hand EVs is much lower than for ICE cars. This impacts price-setting, which creates problems for leasing companies. They can’t get the residue values they initially determined for their cars.

We’re clearly in a transition phase. The technological evolution of EVs is very fast, which creates problems in the second-hand market, especially when more modern and cheaper EVs are coming into the market now.

Top models

The top five best-selling EVs in the professional (B2B) sector are the Tesla Model Y, the BMW iX1, the Audi Q4 e-Tron, the Volvo EX30, and the Tesla Model 3. Of course, the B2C market (individual buyers) has much lower numbers. On top is the Tesla Model Y again, followed by the Model 3), the Volvo EX30, the VW ID.4, and the Dacia Spring.

Looking at the second-hand B2B EV market, the Porsche Taycan is the leader, followed by the two Teslas  and two BMWs, the iX and the iX3.   B2C, we see the Tesla Model 3 on top, followed by the Fiat 500, the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S, and the defunct BMW i3.