Around 2 million cars registered in EU member states were classified as either electric or hybrid electric cars in 2017, according to the latest data released by the EU's statistics watchdog Eurostat on Tuesday.
'In 2017 there were 262 million cars registered in the European Union (EU) Member States. Around 2 million (0.8%) of these were classified as either electric cars or hybrid electric cars that can be driven in combination with a petrol or diesel engine,' Eurostat said.
The body said that there has been a steady increase in the number of electric and hybrid electric cars registered across the EU in recent years. In particular, the number of hybrid electric-petrol cars in 2017 at 1.5 million was almost seven times the number recorded in 2013 with 0.2 million.
Among the EU member states for which figures are available, there were five countries with more than 1 percent of their registered cars either electric or hybrid electric: Sweden at 2.4%, Poland with 1.9%, United Kingdom with 1.5%, France with 1.4% and Belgium with 1.2%.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr