New car sales in Europe rose by 6.3% to 1.39m units in September as scrappage schemes boosted sales, according to European carmakers’ association ACEA.
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ACEA said that the September results were boosted in markets with government incentives to support fleet renewal in place, and especially in those countries where these schemes come to an end soon.
Nine months into the year, sales of new cars were lower than over the same period of 2008, showing a decrease of 6.6%.
Germany was once again the star performing national market, with sales up 21% in September as scrappage orders continue to flow into registrations even though its scheme has ended.
Spain also posted a marked double digit growth (+18.0%) in light of the country’s incentive scheme nearing its end, and after sixteen months of severe downturn (it is still down 29% on a year-to-date basis).
In total, 10,310,038 new cars were registered in Western Europe, or 4.8% less than in the same period a year ago.
In the new EU Member States, the downturn prevailed, reflecting the still challenging market conditions. In September, markets contracted by 36.4% in the region. Poland (+7.9%) and the Czech Republic (+0.5%), the two largest markets, were the only ones posting growth. From January to September, new car registrations were down 28.7%. The vast majority of markets declined sharply, ranging from -22.3% in Slovenia to -80.2% in Latvia. Slovakia (+19.7%), the Czech Republic (+8.0%) and Poland (+1.7%) were the only expanding markets.
Analysts say that the outlook for Europe’s car market in 2010 is clouded by the winding down of scrappage schemes that have pulled sales forward into 2009. However, a ‘soft landing’ is possible if schemes are wound down gradually rather than suddenly switched off, they say.
