EU car sales in March still below 2011, but decline may be easing

ERJ staff report (DS)

Brussels - Demand for new cars in the EU in March was negative for the sixth consecutive month, with a decline of 7.0 percent compared to March last year - a lower decrease than the 9.7 percent seen in February. Data from ACEA, the federation of European vehicle manufacturers shows that, while retaining their importance in terms of volumes (1,453,407 new cars), March registrations have not been this low since 1998. Over the first quarter, the EU market shrank by 7.7 percent, compared to the same period a year ago, with a total of 3,312,657 new registrations.

From January to March, contrasting performance across countries led to an overall 7.7 percent drop. Looking at the major markets, the German (+1.3 percent) and British (+0.9 percent) slightly expanded, while the Spanish dropped by 1.9 percent, and Italy (-21.0 percent) and France (-21.6 percent) faced a much sharper downturn.

Results in March were diverse across the EU as Italy (-26.7 percent), France (-23.2 percent) and Spain (-4.5 percent) saw their markets contract whereas the UK (+1.8 percent) and Germany (+3.4 percent) performed better than they did in the same month a year earlier.

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Press release from ACEA