Renault accelerates EV’s amid EU spike in greener sales

French automobile manufacturer Renault is accelerating its electric vehicle strategy.

It’s announced plans to launch 10 new battery-electric vehicles by 2025

The EU has seen a spike in electric vehicle sales as Europe’s climate focus intensifies.

A new report details that one in every nine cars sold in the EU is now an EV.

Despite COVID lockdowns, restrictions, and a global chip shortage, analysts say there is still plenty of demand.

The uptick in electric car sales caused a 12% drop in average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in Europe last year, compared within 2019, reversing a trend that had seen such emissions increase for three consecutive years.

It was the biggest annual drop in such emissions since the EU introduced its car CO2 standards in 2010.

Of the 11.6 million new cars registered in the EU, Iceland, Norway, and Britain last year, 11% were fully electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, according to the provisional data.

New regulation

Tougher CO2 targets for automakers officially came into force last year.

The new regulation pushed carmakers to curb their fleet-wide emissions by selling more low-emission vehicles, buy credits from other carmakers that overachieved their targets, or face fines. The EEA did not confirm which carmakers met their targets.

Countries including France and Germany also included electric vehicle subsidies in COVID-19 economic recovery packages last year.