European car sales dropped 7.1% year on year to 1.22m units in April 2017, the largest monthly decline since March 2013.
JATO Dynamics said this also was a poor month for diesel vehicles as sales declined 15% suggesting the fuel “has lost its dominance in the European market”. Diesel accounted for 46% of April sales compared with 50% a year previously.
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Four of the continent’s five largest markets saw decreases in registrations in April with Spain the only one with an increase – of just 0.8%.
UK registrations fell 19.8% as the market felt the impact of the new VED [annual and first registration] tax rates, and following record-breaking March [which also saw buyers bring forward purchases to beat the tax hike. In Germany, registrations decreased by 8%, followed by France, which saw a fall of 6.2%.
JATO said the sales fall particularly affected traditional car segments – compact cars posted a drop of 11.9%, subcompacts fell 9% and MPV volume by 21.3%. Meanwhile, SUVs continued to grow, an increase of 7.2%, but this wasn’t enough to offset double-digit drops in other segments.
See Also:
Diesel drops
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By GlobalData“Diesel has lost its dominance in the European car market,” said JATO Dynamics global analyst Felipe Munoz.
“While there are several reasons for this shift, all evidence points to the ‘dieselgate’ scandal as the start of this decline. Since the scandal, which broke in 2015, the fuel type has suffered major setbacks to its reputation as governments consider new legislation that directly affect diesel car owners – such as plans in the UK for a diesel scrappage scheme.
“In tandem with this, the media continues to advise consumers to avoid the fuel type wherever possible. When factoring in the ongoing push for electric/hybrid vehicles, which are particularly prevalent in markets like the UK, it is perhaps no surprise to see this decline in performance from diesel.”
The three big car manufacturers all lost market share. At VW Group, this was due to a fall in compact car sales while PSA experienced declines across all its brands (including at its planned acquisition Opel/Vauxhall). Meanwhile, Renault-Nissan was hit hard by a 20.7% drop in the UK.
The VW Golf regained its position as Europe’s most popular car in April, after losing the title to rival Ford’s Fiesta in March. The recently launched Peugeot 3008 made the largest gain in terms of market share, becoming the fifth best-selling SUV.
