Austria last year registered the highest share of new electric vehicles in the EU, according to new research.

Figures compiled by Verkehrsclub Österreich (VCÖ), an Austrian campaigning organisation that promotes sustainable mobility, show that while in Austria the number of electric cars more than doubled in 2015, the number of new electric cars declined in 12 EU countries.

Some 3 826 electric cars were registered in Austria in 2015, almost three times more than Italy. This means that 1.2 percent of Austria's new cars are electric, more than France (1.1 per cent) and the Netherlands (1 per cent).

Within Austria, the state of Vorarlberg had the highest share of new electric cars, ahead of Salzburg (1.5 per cent) and Styria (1.3 per cent). Vorarlberg register 355 new electric cars, three times more than the whole of Poland.



Austrian sustainable mobility and transport experts say that tax incentives, in force since last year, have contributed significantly to the higher numbers.



They add that a new e-mobility package launched by the Austrian federal government on 1 March could trigger a new surge in registrations.

For more information, visit oekonews.at (in German).

Image copyright: Electric car charger (image on Flickr) by "Kārlis Dambrāns", licensed under CC BY 2.0.