The preliminary sales data for Western Europe* indicates that the plug-in electric car sales were in the first quarter higher than ever before.

The all-electric car registrations improved some 56% year-over-year to a record of 126,000 (4.6% market share). In March alone, it was a near-record at 50,000 and 6.5% market share.

The total number of plug-in car registrations (including PHEVs) in Q1 exceeds 200,000.

According to industry analyst Matthias Schmidt, the top automotive groups by all-electric car sales in Q1 in Western Europe were:

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance: close to 30,000

Volkswagen Group

Tesla

PSA Group

Hyundai-Kia

BMW Group

Daimler

SAIC/GM

Jaguar Land Rover

Honda

* 17 markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets (Norway and Switzerland) and UK