(March 26, 2019) The European car market registered its sixth consecutive month of decline in February, as 1.14 million vehicles were registered. There were some winners, however. The most notable result  was the strong performance of pure electric vehicles (BEVs). Although their market share remained marginal at 1.9%, their volume increased by a huge 92% to 20,000 registrations.

This increase can be explained by the introduction of new models — most notably the Tesla Model 3. The hotly anticipated car excelled during its first full month on the European market and became the best-selling BEV. The Model 3 quickly outsold other big players like the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, despite being more expensive and only available for a short amount of time.

Felipe Munoz, JATO’s global analyst, commented, “The performance of the Model 3 is remarkable, given we normally don’t see this kind of result until four or five months after a new car has hit the roads.”

It’s also notable that most of the Model 3’s volume in February came from private registrations, which breaks the usual trend of a new vehicle’s volume being made up of business/fleet registrations. But even more remarkably, the Tesla Model 3 achieved another record in February, as it became the top-selling premium midsize sedan in Europe — outperforming the popular Mercedes C-Class, Audi A4 and BMW 3-Series.

“As we’re seeing in the US, Tesla is also shaking up the European market. Its long-lasting impact will depend on how quickly the German premium makers, Volvo and JLR react to the arrival of the Model 3 to Europe and how quickly they can bring in their own midsize electric cars,” Munoz said.