Registration of New Vehicles

With a 10.2% share of all new passenger car registrations or 25 380 units (+105.5% compared to 2019), petrol/electric hybrid vehicles are the most important group among alternatively powered passenger cars. They are followed by passenger cars with electric drives with a share of 6.4% or 15 972 units (+72.8% compared to 2019) and diesel/electric hybrid drives with a share of 3.3% or 8 287 units and a plus of 99.4% compared to the previous year.

Primarily legal entities, companies and local authorities are registering new electric cars. This group reaches a share of all new electric car registrations of 81.6% or 13 040 vehicles. The most electric cars were newly registered in Vienna and Lower Austria with shares of 18.5% and 18.4%, respectively. They are followed by the provinces of Upper Austria with a share of 17.6% and Styria with 13.0%.

The Top 10 brands in 2020 represent 67.5% of all new passenger car registrations. VW remained the market leader with a share of 15.4%, followed by Skoda with a share of 9.5%) as well as Seat and BMW, which each achieved a share of 6.4%. Compared to the previous year, all of the Top 10 brands had double-digit declines (Opel -43.7%, Ford -27.6%, VW -27.3%, Renault -24.0%, Hyundai -22.6%, Seat -19.7%, BMW -17.4%, Mercedes -14.8%, Skoda -13.5%, Audi -12.8%).

The number of new registrations of lorries declined in 2020 to 40 042 vehicles (-16.7%). Light commercial vehicles (lorries up to 3.5 t gross vehicle weight, gvw; class N1) - the most important type of lorry with a share of 91.3% - decreased by 15.8%. Lorries over 3.5 t up to 12 t gvw (class N2) decreased by 31.3%, heavy lorries (class N3; over 12 t gvw) by 23.3%. With 6 446 registered vehicles an increase of 6.9% was recorded for tractors used for agriculture and forestry. The number of new registrations of articulated lorries fell by 37.1% to 2 179 vehicles.

Among all vehicle types, campers recorded the highest growth in new registrations in 2020, albeit starting from a small share of 0.8% of all new vehicle registrations, reaching 2 969 units and an increase of 74.2%. In 2019 campers had a share of 0,4% with 1 704 registered units. An analysis of monthly trends shows that, especially from May 2020, new registration data showed a significant positive trend (May 9.0%, June 72.9%, July 119.3%, August 83.6%, September 639.6%, October 563.4%, November 518.8%, December 285.7%). In addition to campers, newly registered camping trailers also increased by 1.8% to 998 units in 2020.

As in 2019, where registrations of new two-wheelers went up 6.6%, the number of registrations also increased in 2020, by 13.4% to 46 099 units. As a result, two-wheelers - as was the case in 2016 - once again ranked second behind new passenger car registrations in terms of all new motor vehicle registrations. The previous peak in new registrations of two-wheelers was reached in 2008 with 53 255 vehicles. The number of new registrations of motorcycles - the most important type of two-wheeled vehicle -- increased by 16.3% to 32 204 units and that of scooters increased by 7.2% to 13 895 units.

In 2020 the share of electrically powered two-wheelers was 5.7% or 2 632 units. In the previous year this share was 6.0%. 769 motorcycles (+39.8%) and 1 863 scooters (-2.1%) had an electric drive.

Average CO₂-emissions of newly registered passenger cars 2020 (provisional results)

According to the WLTP test procedure ("Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure"), the average CO₂-emissions of newly registered passenger cars in 2020 amounted to 136 g/km (including electric and hydrogen vehicles). The average value for petrol-powered passenger cars was 143 g/km and for diesel-powered passenger cars 156 g/km. Within the most important CO₂-class 131-140 g/km (share: 20.0%) 49 872 passenger cars were newly registered, followed by the CO₂-classes 121-130 g/km (44 196 passenger cars; share: 17.8%), over 170 g/km (40 365 passenger cars; share: 16.2%) and 141-150 g/km (32 887 passenger cars; share: 13.2%).