55,000 eco-friendly vehicles were registered from January to July 2018 in our country, 33.1 per cent more than in 2017, while hybrid and electric sales in Europe have surpassed those in the US.
While most car manufacturers are investing in the production of increasingly eco-friendly vehicles, consumers are responding positively to this revolution by directing their purchases ever more frequently towards clean technologies. In Italy, as an analysis by the European Union of Cooperatives Uecoop based on Unrae data has found, from January to July 2018 sales of hybrid and electric cars increased by 33.1 per cent compared with the same period of the previous year, with over 55,000 vehicles registered, equivalent to more than 80 per cent of all those sold throughout the whole of 2017.
Although representing only 5.6 per cent of the total of the 1,282,000 cars registered in the first seven months of the year, hybrid technology and the technology combining hybrid with electric are the categories recording the greatest growth in sales. Among the reasons driving people to buy an eco-friendly car are greater awareness and responsibility towards environmental issues, but also the possibility, with such vehicles, of entering restricted traffic zones in the city or accessing reserved car parks.
Looking at Europe, research by the analytics firm Ev-Volumes shows that on the Old Continent sales of hybrid and electric cars have surpassed those in the United States in terms of units, with 195,000 vehicles registered from January to July 2018 (+42 per cent compared with the previous year) against 122,000 in the US. The country leading the rankings for eco-friendly purchases is Norway, while the most significant growth was recorded in Germany. The market is then expected to expand rapidly in Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.
The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has long been synonymous with hybrid cars and is now also associated with plug-in hybrids. According to a survey carried out in Germany by Progenium on the perceived positivity of various car manufacturers, in the perception of the sample of respondents, the brand is identified as the one with the most environmentally conscious customer base. Not only that. Based on the interviews conducted, Toyota is found to be associated with drivers who have a positive and never arrogant attitude.
