Data released by ACEA shows that new cars sales in the EU dropped by 6.4% in December to 953,108 units. Over the year 2011, demand for new cars decreased by 1.7%, bringing the total number of units registered to 13.11m units.
Car sales in the EU decreased for the fourth consecutive year.
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IHS warned that the more rapid decline in December, coupled with consistent falls in recent months, illustrates the deteriorating state of the eurozone economy.
The ACEA data shows that in December, Germany was the largest market in units with 244,501 new registrations and the only major one to post growth (+6.1%). Spain (-3.6%) and the UK (-3.7%) recorded single-digit drops, while Italy (-15.3%) and France (-17.7%) faced a double-digit downturn.
In 2011, most of the significant markets declined, from -2.1% in France to -4.4% in the UK, -10.9% in Italy and -17.7% in Spain. Germany was the exception as demand for new cars grew by 8.8% over twelve months. It remained the largest market with a total of 3,173,634 new registrations, followed by France (2,251,669 units) and the UK (1,941,253 units).
IHS said that the ongoing austerity measures and tax increases in southern European economies as well as in the UK are continuing to have a material effect on the spending capacity of car buyers and such big-ticket items are inevitability going to be adversely affected by the crisis.
“The ongoing negative news and economic data emerging from the eurozone is also likely to have an increasingly negative impact on the confidence of private buyers across the region,” it warned.
OEM performances
Volkswagen Group has a good year in 2011, adding to share as it maintained its position as clear market leader. VW Group posted growth of 7.5% to 3,045,000 units, market share up two percentage points to 23.2%. Audi was the top performing VW Group brand, managing a 9% rise during the year to 653,337 units.
Second- and third-placed PSA and Renault suffered significant declines, not helped by their reliance on the French market. PSA sales for the full year in Europe fell by 9.0% to 1,643,160 units. Renault was down 8.4% in the year to 1,272,560 units. The weak outlook for the French car market will be of great concern to both groups.
The problems facing the Italian economy and car market will also be of great concern to Fiat. Fiat brand sales in the year were down 17.3% to 671,131 units. However, the Fiat Group was assisted by higher sales at Alfa Romeo and Jeep.
Download EU car sales by make 2011 (.xls format)
