The precipitous decline to the car market in Western Europe could be easing, according to the April sales figures compiled by LMC Automotive.
Car sales in Western Europe grew by 2.3% in April following 18 consecutive months of year-on-year declines. The return to growth, however modest, is sure to be welcome news to many in the beleaguered European automotive sector and follows a 10% decline to sales in the first quarter.
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LMC noted, however, that the April sales result reflected additional sales from the impact of two extra working days in the month compared with last year.
Nevertheless, the annualised selling rate (SAAR) for Western Europe, which takes account of selling days effects, showed a small improvement versus the March result (11.4m units, up from 11.2m units in March). Most markets, LMC said, were either up in year-on-year terms in April, or at least not falling as fast.
The German car market’s selling rate climbed above 3m units a year and sales in France fell at a slower rate last month.
UK car registrations were once again higher with private sales expanding by an impressive 32%. A combination of good deals, improved consumer confidence and a pick up in replacement demand help account for the ongoing improvement, LMC said.
The return to growth in Spain appears impressive. But LMC said that with more selling days and a weak April 2012 to compare to, the 10.8% increase in Spain last month is a “little misleading”. The selling rate actually fell back a little, even though the PIVE scrappage incentive scheme is still operating.
The selling rate in Italy picked up to 1.36m units a year, a little below the market outturn for 2012, but an improvement from earlier in the year. Nonetheless, the Italian economy faces many challenges and will not give assistance to the car market in the near-term, LMC said.
LMC Automotive’s forecast for the year is for West European car sales to total 11.3m units, some 4.2% below the 2012 market and almost a quarter under the last peak of 14.8m units in 2007.
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