Car sales in Western Europe turned in another strong month in February according to data released by LMC Automotive.
Although an extra selling day helped, LMC said the annualised selling rate stood at a healthy 14.1m units, with all of the big five national markets performing well. LMC forecasts that the West European car market will grow by 5.3% to 13.88m units this year and said that its forecast ‘is on the cautious side’.
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However, the LMC forecasters said that caution was warranted on slowing European economic growth and the risk of a decision for UK exit from the EU following the June referendum.
The German car market was up by 12.1% in February with a selling rate of around 3.5m units a year.
However, the performance of the Italian car market stands out in the early part of the year. It was up by 27.1% in February, marking its 21st consecutive month of growth. The Spanish car market was up by 12.6%, boosted by the continued PIVE scrappage scheme and an improving economy.
In France sales were up by 13% last month and car sales in the UK were up by 8.4% with annualised sales running at 2.7m units a year (the UK posted its best February car sales since 2004).
Many smaller markets also turned in good sales performances in February (Portugal up by 26% and Ireland 37%, for example).
“The year is off to a pretty good start,” said LMC analyst Jonathon Poskitt. “It has come in stronger than we expected and it is encouraging, certainly. The market is coming back from a long downturn, underlying demand being driven up by improving economic conditions. However, the overall economic picture in the region carries some downside risks – both in relation to the global economy and developments within the region – and that leads us to exercise a little caution on the full year outlook.”
