Figures released by the European vehicle makers’ body ACEA show that first quarter car sales in Europe were down by 17.2% on the same period last year, although March saw some improvement due to scrappage incentives.
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Declining for the eleventh consecutive month, passenger car registrations in Europe fell by 9% in March compared to the same month last year. The monthly result was lifted by the on average three more working days across the region and the effect of fleet renewal schemes in a number of countries.
Over the first quarter of 2009, the market was down by 17.2% with a total of 3,439,720 new registrations compared to 4,154,778 units in the same period last year.
Western Europe recorded 1,429,445 new passenger car registrations in March (-8.0%). The result was boosted by the 39.9% expansion of the German market, where consumers continued to respond widely to the government’s incentive scheme introduced in January.
Such a development underpinned the markets in France (+8.0%) and Italy (+0.2%) as well. In the UK, where March is usually a strong month, registrations fell by 30.5%, reflecting the overall persisting lack of confidence in the economy. This sentiment also prevailed in Spain (-38.7%).
In the new EU Member States, 76,803 new cars were registered in March, or 25.4% less than last year. Poland and the Czech Republic, two of the major markets in the region, posted a growth of 2.5% and 0.9% respectively. Slovakia also recorded a strong increase of 18.2% following the introduction of a car scrapping scheme. Looking at the cumulative figures from January to March, Poland consolidated its position as the largest market with a total of 87,939 new registrations and a 1.3% upturn. Latvia performed worst with a contraction of 77.9%.
