the association which represents the 16 major europebased automakers said this would follow a 24 decline in 2021 due to a shortage of semiconductors especially during the second half of last yeareuropean union car sales are expected to rise by 79 this year as semiconductor supply problems ease but will still be some 20 below 2019 prepandemic levels the european automobile manufacturers association acea said on tuesday the association which represents the 16 major europebased automakers said this would follow a 24 decline in 2021 due to a shortage of semiconductors especially during the second half of last year advt aceas statement comes on the day the european commission is set to propose the european chips act which is designed to promote semiconductor research and production in europe and to decrease dependence on a single country or region acea said in a statement that chip supplies were expected to stabilise in 2022 allowing passenger car registrations in the european union to rise to 105 million vehicles the association urged the european union to reduce its reliance on overseas suppliers to avoid damage to strategic european industries in the future acea also pointed to electrically chargeable vehicles now accounting for almost one in every five new cars sold in the eu and while welcoming the performance said that the pace of rollout of charging infrastructure was lagging electric car sales increased more than 10fold between 2017 and 2021 whereas the number of public chargers in the eu grew by less than 25 times over the same period said oliver zipse acea president and chief executive of bmw if this situation is not urgently addressed by introducing ambitious targets for all eu member states we will hit a roadblock very soon the european union is also deliberating a proposed alternative fuels infrastructure regulation which acea said needed to be strengthened to ensure europe builds a sufficiently dense charging network also readselfcharging hybrids outsell diesel in europe for first time aceahybrid electric vehicles accounted for nearly 20 of new passenger cars registered across the european union up from 119 according to the european automobile manufacturers associationsee more details reuters published on feb 8 2022 at 1240 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app acea european union european chips act eu car sales auto sales car demand chip shortage impact on auto industry homenewseu car sales to rise 79 in 2022 as chip supply stabilises acea