Spain passenger car fuel mix — 2024 in numbers

Background

Spain’s passenger car market in 2024 remained overwhelmingly petrol-led, with diesel still substantial and electrified powertrains continuing to expand from a smaller base. The findings list 1,047,377 passenger car registrations in 2024, with petrol at 728,573, diesel at 170,335, electric at 57,047, petrol/electric at 53,467, diesel/electric at 4,518, LPG at 33,344, and NG at 93.

The headline fuel shares for 2024 reinforce that hierarchy. Petrol accounted for 69.6% of registrations, diesel for 16.3%, and electric for 5.4%. Those figures answer the broad question of how the Spanish new-car market is doing on fuel mix: it is still centered on conventional petrol, while battery-electric and hybrid formats are present but not yet dominant.

Across the 2020 to 2024 period, the market shows a clear shift in composition. Petrol registrations rose over the period, diesel registrations fell, and electric registrations increased each year shown in the findings.

2024 market snapshot

The 2024 market can be read most clearly by placing the main fuel types side by side.

Fuel type	2024 registrations
Petrol	728,573
Diesel	170,335
Electric	57,047
Petrol/electric	53,467
LPG	33,344
Diesel/electric	4,518
NG	93

Petrol was by far the largest category at 728,573. Diesel, at 170,335, remained the second-largest single fuel type. Electric registrations reached 57,047, while petrol/electric registrations were close behind at 53,467.

This means that anyone asking about car sales in Spain or new car sales in Spain in 2024 can at least see the fuel composition clearly from the registration data. The market was not evenly spread across technologies. It was concentrated in petrol, with diesel still relevant and several alternative fuels occupying much smaller positions.

LPG also stood out more than NG in 2024. LPG reached 33,344 registrations, while NG was just 93. That gap is one of the sharpest contrasts in the dataset.

How the fuel mix changed from 2020 to 2024

The strongest long-run movement in the series is the rise of petrol and the decline of diesel. Petrol registrations were 535,732 in 2020 and climbed to 728,573 in 2024. Diesel moved the other way, from 320,775 in 2020 to 170,335 in 2024.

Electric registrations also increased steadily across the period, from 18,102 in 2020 to 23,762 in 2021, 31,001 in 2022, 54,418 in 2023, and 57,047 in 2024. Petrol/electric registrations rose from 24,286 in 2020 to 38,990 in 2021, 44,572 in 2022, 59,599 in 2023, before easing to 53,467 in 2024.

A year-by-year view shows the direction of travel:

Year	Petrol	Diesel	Electric	Petrol/electric
2020	535,732	320,775	18,102	24,286
2021	566,968	251,389	23,762	38,990
2022	548,570	196,281	31,001	44,572
2023	649,418	175,419	54,418	59,599
2024	728,573	170,335	57,047	53,467

The pattern is not uniform across every fuel. Petrol/electric rose strongly through 2023, then slipped in 2024. Diesel/electric was 1,260 in 2020, 2,132 in 2021, 2,115 in 2022, 1,662 in 2023, and then 4,518 in 2024, making 2024 its strongest year in the series.

Alternative fuels beyond the main categories

Outside petrol, diesel, and the better-known electrified categories, the findings show a mixed picture for LPG, NG, and CNG.

LPG registrations increased each year in the series: 9,856 in 2020, 13,554 in 2021, 14,489 in 2022, 26,108 in 2023, and 33,344 in 2024. That makes LPG one of the clearest growth stories among the smaller fuel types.

NG moved in the opposite direction. It stood at 3,425 in 2020, 1,117 in 2021, 365 in 2022, 88 in 2023, and 93 in 2024. The 2024 figure is slightly above 2023, but still far below the earlier years.

CNG appears only in 2020, at 118. It is not listed in the later annual entries. The findings do not provide a broader explanation for that change in classification or market presence, so the safest reading is simply that CNG was minimal in the period shown.

For readers interested in buying cars in Spain, these smaller categories matter mainly as niche segments. The registration counts show that LPG had a visible place in 2024, while NG was marginal.

Market direction in the latest year

The latest year in the findings is 2024, and it presents a clear picture of market direction by fuel. Petrol led with 728,573 registrations and a 69.6% share. Diesel followed with 170,335 and a 16.3% share. Electric reached 57,047 and a 5.4% share.

That ordering matters for any broad reading of the Spanish passenger car market. The data does not show a market led by battery-electric vehicles. It shows a market still anchored in petrol, with diesel reduced from earlier years and electrified options growing but still smaller in raw volume.

The same point appears in the multi-year series. Petrol rose from 535,732 in 2020 to 728,573 in 2024. Diesel fell from 320,775 in 2020 to 170,335 in 2024. Electric rose from 18,102 in 2020 to 57,047 in 2024.

The findings do not include used car sales in Spain, car prices in Spain, or how much a car is in Spain. They are limited to passenger car fuel mix and selected fleet context.

What the fleet data says about the wider parc

The findings also include a fleet overview for 2022, which helps place new registrations in context. Spain’s passenger car fleet total is listed at 26,605,478 in 2022. Within that fleet, diesel accounted for 54.3% and petrol for 44.7%.

That fleet picture differs sharply from the new-registration mix in the same year. In 2022, new registrations totaled 851,525, with petrol at 70.3%, diesel at 24.2%, electric at 3.7%, and alternative at 5.6%. The contrast suggests that the on-road parc still reflected older diesel-heavy buying patterns even as new registrations had already shifted toward petrol.

The fleet age profile also points to a relatively old parc:

Fleet age band	Vehicles
Under 2 years	1,734,503
2–5 years	3,402,702
5–10 years	4,944,003
10–20 years	10,209,785
Over 20 years	6,314,485

The largest age band is 10–20 years at 10,209,785, followed by over 20 years at 6,314,485. That matters for any discussion of the automotive industry in Spain because the new-car market is only one layer of the broader vehicle landscape. The fleet remains shaped by older vehicles, and in 2022 that fleet was still majority diesel.

Electrification in context

Electrification is visible in the data, but it is not yet the central story of the Spanish passenger car market. Battery-electric registrations rose every year from 2020 to 2024, reaching 57,047 in the latest year. Petrol/electric registrations also remained high, at 53,467 in 2024, after peaking at 59,599 in 2023.

The 2022 fleet overview adds more detail on electrified new registrations. In that year, PET_X_HYB was 40.4, ELC_PET_HYB was 24.4, DIE_X_HYB was 20.1, ELC_PET_PI was 5.4, ELC_DIE_HYB was 3.8, and ELC_DIE_PI was 0.3. Those labels indicate that hybridized petrol formats had a larger role than pure electric in the 2022 registration structure.

Still, the 2024 headline electric share was 5.4%, and the raw electric count was 57,047. That is a meaningful presence, but the market remained led by petrol at 728,573 and 69.6%.

Limitations of the findings

This dataset is specific. It covers Spain passenger car fuel mix, annual registration counts by fuel, and one fleet overview for 2022. It does not provide transaction prices, regional splits such as Madrid, used-car volumes, or any information on Christmas markets in Spain or the UK car market in 2024.

It also mixes label styles across years, with uppercase fuel names in 2020 and 2021 and lowercase forms in 2022 to 2024. The underlying categories are still readable, but the presentation is not fully standardized.

Some categories also appear only in certain years. CNG is listed at 118 in 2020 and not shown later. The findings do not explain whether that reflects market disappearance, reclassification, or reporting differences.

For that reason, the strongest conclusions are the simplest ones: 2024 registrations totaled 1,047,377; petrol led at 728,573; diesel followed at 170,335; electric reached 57,047; and the broader 2022 fleet remained diesel-heavy at 54.3%.

Frequently asked questions

Q: How many new passenger car registrations were recorded in Spain in 2024? A: The findings list 1,047,377 passenger car registrations in Spain in 2024.

Q: Which fuel type led the Spanish passenger car market in 2024? A: Petrol led the market in 2024 with 728,573 registrations. Its listed share was 69.6%.

Q: How large was diesel in Spain’s 2024 passenger car market? A: Diesel registrations were 170,335 in 2024. The findings give diesel a 16.3% share.

Q: How many electric passenger cars were registered in Spain in 2024? A: Electric registrations reached 57,047 in 2024. The listed electric share was 5.4%.

Q: Did petrol/electric registrations rise in 2024? A: Petrol/electric registrations were 59,599 in 2023 and 53,467 in 2024. So the 2024 figure was below the 2023 figure.

Q: What does the fleet data show about Spain’s car parc? A: The 2022 fleet total was 26,605,478. Diesel accounted for 54.3% of the fleet and petrol for 44.7%.

Q: Is Spain’s passenger car fleet old or new? A: In 2022, the largest fleet age band was 10–20 years at 10,209,785, and over 20 years accounted for 6,314,485. Under 2 years accounted for 1,734,503.