Erfurt (dpa/th) - The demand for electric cars increased significantly in Thuringia from January to March. The number of new registrations in the first quarter grew by 43.6 percent to 1258 vehicles, as announced by the Thuringian State Office for Statistics on Monday in Erfurt. In general, the number of new passenger car registrations rose to 11,869 in the period mentioned. That is 0.6 percent more than in the same period last year. According to statistics, however, the number of registrations for petrol and diesel vehicles fell. By the end of March this year, 4,990 petrol engines had been newly registered, 4.3 percent fewer than in the same period last year.