New car sales registrations in the European Union increased by 12.9% in January compared to the same month a year ago, according to data released by European carmakers’ association ACEA.
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The ACEA data confirms that issued by JD Power and published on just-auto earlier this month.
January sales were influenced by the continuing effect of fleet renewal schemes in a number of Western European countries as well as a comparison with a particularly low January market last year. The month also counted on average one working day less across the EU.
Compared to January 2008, car sales last month were 17.3% lower.
Registrations were up in a majority of countries, ranging from +0.3% in Slovakia to +62.1% in Portugal. Among the larger markets, France (+14.3%), Spain (+18.1%), the UK (+29.8%) and Italy (+30.2%) all fared better than in January 2009.
Germany (-4.3%) was the only major market to decline, with results reflecting the discontinuation
of the country’s fleet renewal programme in the autumn of last year.
JD Power analyst Pete Kelly told just-auto that the German result for January – though down – was better than many expected. “There is still some backlog of sales coming through from the scrappage scheme,” he said.
The Romanian market decreased by 84.6%.
In total, 1,058,868 new cars were registered in the EU in January.
Manufacturer detail shows that the Volkswagen led the EU car market in January with sales of 217,027 units – a gain of 11.3% on last year to give VW a market share of 20.5%.
Renault was a notable gainer in the month with group car sales (including Dacia) up almost 60% on last year to 114,373 units.
The biggest brand faller was Saab with sales down 68% on last year to less than 800 cars.
JD Power forecasts that the West European car market will decline by 9.1% to 12.4m units in 2010, as the effects of the scrappage scheme ending in Germany are felt more strongly later this year.
