EU's hybrid, electric car exports rose 69% in 2021 - Eurostat

(Reuters) - The European Union's exports of hybrid and electric cars rose 69% last year in value terms to 42 billion euros ($44.26 billion), beating imports for a second year, a report from statistics office Eurostat said on Friday.

Exports of non-plug-in hybrid vehicles rose to 22.9 billion euros in 2021, while those of full electric cars rose to 12.3 billion euros and of plug-in hybrid cars to 6.8 billion euros.

The total value of imports increased 40% to 29 billion euros, said Eurostat, with the value of imports of non-plug-in hybrid vehicles at 11.8 billion euros.

Exports were also above imports in 2020 after lagging the previous year.

Britain was the largest destination for EU exports of non-plug-in hybrid cars and full electric cars, accounting for 26% and 28% of the total respectively, followed by Norway and the United States.

Plug-in hybrid cars were largely exported to Britain, China and the United States.

Japan was the market of origin for 23% of EU imports of non-plug-in hybrid cars in 2021. For full electric cars, China accounted to 43% of imports, while plug-in hybrid cars were largely imported from the United States.

($1 = 0.9490 euros)

(Reporting by Dina Kartit; Editing by Jan Harvey)