Hybrid electric vehicle sales up 44% in H1

Global sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) rose 44% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, according to a report by Macquarie Consulting Group.

According to CNN, the share of hybrid electric vehicles in total electric vehicle sales in the first half reached 35%, making it the highest since 2017.

PHEV sales in the first half of 2024 accounted for 41% of total Chinese car sales, compared to 32% the previous year.

The report says the return to PHEVs mainly reflects strong growth in Chinese car sales, which are on track to account for half of China’s total electric vehicle sales.

Hybrid electric vehicles typically combine a gasoline engine with a hybrid electric battery.

PHEVs are similar to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) but have larger batteries; Which provides more range using electric power only.

Europe is focusing on hybrid cars rather than plug-in hybrid electric cars, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

In the first half of 2024, new registrations of hybrid electric vehicles in Europe rose by 22.3 percent compared to the same six months of 2023 to reach 1.66 million units, while registrations of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) fell by 2.5 percent year-on-year to 392,284 units.

The United States is following Europe’s lead, and despite the slowdown in its electric car market, hybrid electric cars took a leading share of the total in the first half of 2024 with about 710,000 cars compared to 550,000 electric cars.

Compared to the first half of 2023, sales of hybrid electric cars in the same period of 2024 rose by 34 percent while sales of battery electric cars rose by 1.9 percent.

Standard & Poor’s expects hybrid electric vehicles to play a larger role in U.S. light-duty vehicle sales, reaching about 20% of total sales in 2031.

Toyota Motor Corporation, one of the largest electric vehicle manufacturers in Japan, is seeing its hybrid electric vehicle sales rise 19.8% in the first half of 2024 to 1.92 million units, while plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) sales rose 35.2% to 72,600 units.

Toyota sold about 1.5 million hybrid electric vehicles outside Japan, or about 78.4% of total sales.

Toyota’s hybrid electric vehicle sales abroad alone rose 32.7% compared to the first half of 2023.

In June 2024 alone, Toyota accounted for 51.1% of total hybrid electric vehicle sales in the United States.