Sharjah24 - Reuters: Self-charging hybrid cars, which operate on both an internal combustion engine and a battery, outsold diesel cars in Europe for the first time in 2021, albeit by just 48 vehicles, data showed on Wednesday.

One in 11 cars sold were battery-electric, the data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association showed, totalling just under 880,000 vehicles.

Self-charging hybrid cars contain a battery charged by an internal combustion engine, and generally can only drive a limited distance on electric power.

Plug-in hybrids are powered primarily by a battery charged externally and thus seen as more environmentally friendly, but are backed up by an internal combustion engine, while battery-electric cars run on the battery alone.

A total of 1,901,239 million self-charging hybrid cars were registered in the European Union throughout the year, a significant jump from the 1.1 million registered in 2020.

Diesel registrations, which have cratered since the Dieselgate scandal in 2015, fell by a third from last year's 2.77 million to 1,901,191.