The new cars that Europeans bought last year are on average slightly more polluting than the new ones in 2023. It is the first time in a long time that new cars are not cleaner than the year before. This is mainly because Germans have purchased fewer electric cars.
The new cars sold in Europe last year emit an average of 106.8 grams of CO2 per kilometer. This is according to preliminary figures from the European Environment Agency (EEA), which the Belgian newspaper De Tijd previously reported. A year earlier, cars in the European Union, Norway, and Iceland emitted an average of 106.4 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
Between 2019 and 2023, emissions from new cars decreased by 28 percent. According to the EEA, this was largely thanks to the growth of the electric car fleet in Europe, which grew to a market share of almost 24 percent.
According to the figures, the Netherlands was one of the leaders last year with clean new cars, with an average of 65.3 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer. Only Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland did better.