Electric vehicles as a proportion of the total fleet

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cars dominate the alternative-fuel passenger car fleet. The number of LPG passenger cars almost doubled between 2005 and 2015, reaching 10 million vehicles in 2016. Poland and Italy are the leading countries in the EU-28 with 2.60 million and 2.55 million cars respectively. LPG vehicles account for about 3.2 % of the overall passenger car fleet in the EEA-33. This figure has remained rather constant over the last five years. Registrations of new LPG passenger cars peaked in 2009 at 3.6 % of new registrations, while alternative fuelled car registrations accounted for 3.7 % of of total registrations in the same year. After a sharp decrease following the economic downturn, registrations of new LPG vehicles remained broadly constant until 2015. In 2016, new registrations of LPG vehicles increased significantly, with Poland reporting information indicating that 34 % of new vehicle sales comprised LPG vehicles. Further investigation is required in order to ensure that fuel type is reported in accordance with the guidelines.

The number of natural gas (NG) passenger cars almost tripled between 2005 and 2015, although it fell by 27 % in 2016 compared with 2015. NG passenger cars still represent just 1.7 % of the total passenger car fleet and the number of NG passenger cars is only significant in the United Kingdom and Italy (1.6 and 1.3 million, respectively), with only small numbers (a few thousand) to be found in other EU Member States. 

The pollutant emissions of properly adjusted LPG and NG vehicles should differ little from petrol vehicles. This is because all three fuels generally contain the same families of chemicals (paraffinic hydrocarbons — petrol also contains aromatics) and because the spark ignition combustion process is similar for both fuels. Only methane (CH₄) emissions from NG vehicles are substantially higher than petrol, as the fuel is 90 % methane, which is relatively difficult to ignite in cold areas within the combustion chamber.

LPG has approximately 80 % of the energy content of petrol per litre, while the volumetric energy content of NG ranges from five times less than that of petrol for compressed natural gas to 1.8 times less for liquefied natural gas. Despite the energy content disadvantage, both alternative fuels are considered to be promising fuels for the future, mainly because of their widespread availability and alternative energy pathway to oil, as well as the low CO₂ yield per unit of energy delivered.

Electric cars are slowly penetrating the EU market. These include battery electric vehicles (BEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and electric vehicles with a range extender (REEV). Despite their small numbers (about 268 000) and their small market share (about 0.13 % of the total passenger car fleet), the number of new electric car registrations in the EU has been increasing steadily over the last few years. Sales of BEVs increased by 13 % in 2016 compared with 2015. This continues an increasing trend from 2008 and BEVs comprised 0.4 % of total new passenger car registrations in the EU-28 in 2016. France tops the rankings with 22 683 BEVs sold in 2016, followed by Germany with 11 444. Outside the EU, almost one third of all new cars sold in Norway during 2016 were electric (including PHEVs and BEVs). Among EEA member countries, this makes Norway a leading market for electric vehicles in terms of market share. Most countries in Europe offer financial incentives such as tax reductions and exemptions for electrically charging vehicles. Such incentives can include, for example, exemptions from one-off purchase tax (making the cost comparable with conventional vehicles), VAT exemption, use of bus lanes etc.

Compared with passenger cars, the percentage of alternative-fuel light commercial vehicles (LCV) and buses is low, with numbers around 1.5 % of the total LCV fleet and 2.1 % of the bus fleet in 2016, respectively.

The trend in NG buses has been increasing over the years, although they only accounted for 1.3 % of the total bus fleet in 2016. The numbers of LPG and electric (mainly trolley) buses are much lower and have remained rather constant over the last 4-5 years. France, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Spain are the only countries with significant numbers (i.e. above 600) of NG buses.

Numbers of LPG light commercial vehicles (LCVs) remain rather stable, but they only account for about 0.9 % of the total LCV fleet, whereas the number of NG LCVs is much smaller at about 0.5 %. Poland is the only country with a significant number of LPG LCVs (around 172 000) and Italy has the highest number of NG LCVs (about 109 000). The registration of new alternative-fuel LCVs remains low; in 2016, 1.8 % of all new vans were alternative-fuel LCVs.