Only a fifth of new car sales in Germany were diesel only in April

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - New car sales in Germany, Europe's largest economy, bounced back in April, although were still 19% lower than two years earlier, and there was shift away from diesel only cars, data from KBSA Transport shows.

More buyers also sought gasoline, electric and hybrid cars.

A total of 229,650 new cars were registered last month.

Gasoline only cars accounted for 39.2% of the total (90,072 registrations) and diesel only cars accounted for 21.9% (50,195 registrations).

But diesel only cars were less popular than hybrids, where the fuel engine powers the electric battery, and plug-in hybrids, where the car switches to fuel once the battery has run down.

Germans bought 37,106 hybrid cars and 26,988 cars in April, which combined accounted for 27.9% of total sales.

Battery electric cars accounted for 10.4% of total sales, with 23,816 registrations.