European passenger car sales down by 12% in April

ERJ staff report (DS)

Brussels -- European registrations of new passenger cars have now declined every month for the last year. The latest figures from ACEA show registrations were 1.252 million units in April, or 12.3 percent less than in the same month a year ago. Registrations for the first four months are 15.9 percent lower than the same period in 2008.

Austria (+12.8 percent) and Germany (+19.4 percent) were the only countries to post growth, reflecting the effect of fleet renewal incentives. Neighbouring countries with such schemes in place, such as France (-7.1 percent), Italy (-7.5 percent) and Luxemburg (-8.5 percent) recorded a single-digit decrease, while other markets declined more severely. British and Spanish registrations fell by 24.0 percent and 45.6 percent respectively.

The new EU Member States saw their results drop by 21.4 percent in April, with 83,430 new cars registered. Poland (+2.4 percent), the Czech Republic (+19.0 percent) and Slovakia (+43.5 percent) posted growth while Hungary (-51.5 percent) and Romania (-51.8 percent) recorded a sharp downturn.

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Press release from ACEA