The electric and hybrid car market has exploded this year in the European Union, thanks to government incentives, but Romania is among the states with the lowest increase in sales volume of zero or low emissions cars, according to data released Thursday by the Association of European Car Manufacturers (ACEA), according to DPA.

In the first nine months of this year, about 570,000 electric and hybrid cars were sold in the EU, an increase of 122% compared to the same period last year. The top three national markets for electric and hybrid car sales were Germany, France and Sweden with sales of approximately 204,500, 111,000 and 56,500 units.

In Romania, in the first nine months of this year, 1,398 electric and hybrid cars were sold, rate increasing by 39.9% annually. The only EU countries where market growth was lower than in Romania are the Netherlands (16.3%), Cyprus (22.2%) and Portugal (39.5%), according to Agerpres.

During the same period, sales of petrol cars fell by 38% in the EU to 3.529 million units, and those of diesel cars fell by 35% to 2.03 million units. In Romania, sales of petrol powered cars decreased by 42.9% to 47,690 units and those with diesel engines decreased by 30.4% to 22,873 units.