The latest figures from ACEA show that the EU car market declined by 5.9% in May, the lowest level recorded for the month of May since 1993.
May car sales in the EU area totalled 1.042m units and the cumulative figure for the first five months stands at 5.071m units, 6.8% down on the same period of last year.
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The figures confirmed those issued by LMC Automotive for Western Europe earlier this month.
In May, most major markets faced a downturn ranging from -2.6% in Spain to -8.0% in Italy, -9.9% in Germany and -10.4% in France. The UK was the only country to post growth (+11.0%).
From January to May, Spain and Germany saw their market shrink by 5.8% and 8.8% respectively, while Italy (-11.3%) and France (-11.9%) recorded a double-digit decline. The UK continued its positive trend, expanding by 9.3%.
The analysts at IHS noted that May’s decline indicates some stabilisation of the trend and that the low base of comparison with last year should keep helping in the coming months.
The German car market decline will be of concern to many in the industry. With Europe’s largest market down almost 10% in May, LMC now says that weak consumer confidence in Germany could lead to the German car market declining by 3-4% this year.
