EU imports of electric, hybrid cars increase significantly in 2019

The European Union (EU)'s imports of electric and hybrid electric cars more than tripled between 2018 and 2019, showed the figures released Tuesday by Eurostat, the EU statistical office, reported Xinhua.

The imports more than doubled between 2017 and 2018 (104 percent), said the Eurostat.

Imports increased from 1.8 billion euros in January-April 2019 to 3.1 billion euros in January-April 2020. After the pandemic hit Europe, the imports in April 2020 increased only slightly compared with April 2019.

The statistical office said the bloc exported 8.2 billion euros and imported 7.1 billion euros worth of electric and hybrid electric cars in 2019, resulting in a trade surplus of 1.1 billion euros.

The exports of electric and hybrid cars increased to 2.9 billion euros in January-April 2020 from 2.5 billion euros in January-April 2019.

April 2020 was an exception as the exports collapsed to only 0.3 billion euros, down from 0.8 billion euros in April 2019, most likely due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eurostat said.