Europe continues its transition to zero-emission mobility, according to the recently released 2022 Progress Report, published by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), representing the continent’s 16 major car, truck, van and bus makers.

Updated annually, the statistical Progress Report is based on latest full-year available data, drawing from all available data sources, including ACEA, European Alternative Fuels Observatory, European Economic Area, Eurostat and information/analysis provider IHS Markit.

Now in its fifth edition, the research tracks progress on the key “enabling factors” for zero-emission cars and vans over time, according to the ACEA. The report indicates the auto industry’s investments in alternatively-powered vehicles are “paying off.”

“Against last year’s backdrop of a contracting vehicle market, electrically-chargeable cars continued to gain overall market share, accounting for almost one in every five new cars sold across the European Union.” However, the report points out, the trend is sustainable only with government investments in infrastructure and meaningful and sustainable incentives.

The publication specifically addresses market adoption of alternatively-powered vehicles, affordability, and infrastructure availability. In addition, the report contains a comprehensive glossary explaining the various types of alternative-powered and the infrastructure each requires.

Among the Progress Report findings are:

• Electrically-chargeable car sales – battery electric and plug-in hybrids combined – account for 18% of all new car sales in the EU.

• Hybrid vehicles made up almost 20% of total EU passenger car registrations in 2021.

• Fuel cell and natural gas-powered cars still only account for a small share of EU sales –less than 1%.

• Almost 3% of all vans sold in 2021 were battery electric, less than 2% were hybrid electric, and 0.1% were plug-in hybrids.

• The market uptake of electrically-chargeable vehicles is largely linked to a country’s GDP per capita, indicating affordability remains an issue for consumers.

While electric charger infrastructure has grown 180% since 2017, the total number of charging points available across the entire EU – 307,000 – falls far short of what is needed, according to the ACEA report. Nearly 7 million public charging points would be required EU-wide by 2030 to reach the proposed 55% CO2 reduction for passenger cars.

Furthermore, the publication states, “Almost 50% of all charging points for electric cars are concentrated in only two EU countries – the Netherlands (90,000 chargers) and Germany (60,000). These countries make up less than 10% of the entire EU surface area.”

A full copy of the Mobility Progress Report is available on the ACEA website.