Registrations of pure electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid cars totalled 94,000 units in 18 European markets in May 2019, counting for 7.1% of the total volume, up from 5.3% in May 2018, according to figures from JATO Dynamics.

The majority of registrations came from hybrid vehicles, but the growth was driven by pure electric cars, where registrations jumped from 12,300 units in May 2018 to 22,300 (+81%) last month.

The Renault Zoe was the top-selling electric car in Europe last month, but the Tesla Model 3 continues to lead the year-to-date rankings. However, registrations for the Model 3 fell from 15,755 in March to 3,659 in April, and 2,820 in May.

A large part of Tesla’s global plans depend on how the brand can maintain the sales growth of the Model 3. The sedan needs to continue to grab the attention of consumers in Europe, as US demand has almost peaked already. The initial good start we saw in March has somewhat dissipated in April and May.

—Felipe Munoz, JATO’s global analys

Overall, the European car market remained stable in May 2019 for the second month in a row. In total, 1.44 million vehicles were registered—a 0.2% increase on May 2018.

The stable results from April and May signify an end to the market’s extended period of decline between September 2018 and March 2019. However, year-to-date figures show 6.91 million vehicles have been registered so far in 2019—a decline of 2% on the same period last year.

SUVs once again drove market growth in May, offsetting the drops posted by the traditional segments. While demand for subcompact, compact, midsize and executive/luxury cars and MPVs fell during the month, demand for SUVs was up by 10% to 534,700 units.

SUVs continued to dominate the European market, as they counted for 37.2% of total registrations and posted a market share increase of 3.2 percentage points on the same time last year. Year-to-date figures show 2.56 million SUVs have been registered so far in 2019 in Europe—an increase of 8%.

SUVs’ growth came from the strong results posted by small and compact SUVs, which when combined counted for 81% of the segment’s total registrations. This was largely due to the good reception for the latest small SUV arrivals to the market, such as the Volkswagen T-Roc and T-Cross, Hyundai Kona and the new Dacia Duster, which led to a volume increase of 13% to 209,600 registrations.

This is a remarkable increase over the last 10 years, considering there were only 125,000 small SUV registrations across the whole of 2009, JATO noted. Meanwhile, demand for compact SUVs grew by 10% to 225,900 units, led by the Volkswagen Tiguan, Peugeot 3008 and Nissan Qashqai.

When including all subsegments (small, compact, midsize and large), Volkswagen Group was the clear leader in the SUV segment. In May, the German maker recorded 123,100 SUV registrations, up by 29%. PSA came second with 93,100 registrations, up 12%. Meanwhile, Renault-Nissan posted a decline in the segment, as volume dropped by 5% to 83,300 registrations. By models, the Dacia Duster led the SUV rankings, followed by the Volkswagen Tiguan and T-Roc.