As expected, new car registrations in Europe fell in August 2019 in comparison to the same month last year, according to analysts at JATO Dynamics.
Last month’s volume reached 1,070,276 units, down 8.7% or 102,000 units versus August 2018.
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The year on year drop can be explained by the introduction of WLTP in September 2018, which saw many carmakers and consumers push through their purchases (self-registrations and private registrations respectively) in order to shift produced units that were not homologated or not making use of special discounts.
This was even more apparent when compared to the previous year, as registrations in 2018 increased by 30% compared to August 2017.
Despite the expected drop, the results in August 2019 were not as bad as they seem.
“After the impressive growth posted a year ago the drop could have been a lot bigger, so a single-digit decrease is better than expected. More importantly, last month was the second highest August of the last 10 years. In fact, the volume last month was 19% higher than in August 2017 and was the only time (excluding August 2018) that total volume exceeded 1m units for the month,” said JATO global analyst Felipe Munoz.
In individual country rankings, while the year on year comparison to 2018 may seem alarming, only four out of 27 posted a decrease compared to August 2017: Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Switzerland.
The results by segment reflected a similar trend.
SUVs continued to lead the market, but their volume fell by 3% to 407,700 units. The only two segments to register a positive result were city cars (+3%) and sports cars (+15%). However, the balance is relatively positive when compared to August 2017, when SUV volume totaled 266,000 units and had a market share of 30% compared to 38% last month.
MPVs, midsize cars, executive cars and compact cars were the only segments to lose ground compared to August 2017.
The strong results for SUVs were boosted mostly by three models: the Dacia Duster, which topped the SUV ranking during the month and occupied the second place in the overall model ranking for the first time; the Volkswagen T-Roc, popularity of which doesn’t seem to fade; and the VW T-Cross which has already sold over 50,000 units since January.
Meanwhile, the rapid decline of diesel registrations isn’t slowing down. In August, diesel volume fell by 23% compared to the same month last year, and 16% compared to August 2017. Moreover, diesel market share has continuously fallen from 42% two years ago to 35% in August 2018 to 30% last month.
While diesel is in freefall, electrified vehicles (BEV, PHEV and HEV) continued to gain traction with their market share jumping from 5.6% in Aug 2017 to 6.0% in Aug 2018 to 7.8% last month.
A total of 83,700 electrified cars were registered in August 2019. Hybrids counted for 56%, with Mercedes outselling Lexus and becoming the second largest brand by registrations volume.
Registrations of fully electric cars totaled 23,200 units, up by 76% on August 2018, and 143% on August 2017. Tesla shone thanks to the Model 3, which was the top-selling BEV of the month.
“It’s clear that the diesel crisis is not going to stop anytime soon. We’re used to seeing registration peaks for Tesla in Europe at the end of each quarter. However, August showed an unusual result as there was a peak a month earlier. This indicates that the demand is stabilising at very strong levels. However, while EVs are becoming increasingly popular, their high prices remain their biggest limitation for consumers,” noted Munoz.
The model ranking showed clear winners for the month. The recently launched T-Cross was the top market share winner, entering the top 20 in 18th position. The Suzuki Jimny, Peugeot 508, Chevrolet Camaro, Peugeot Rifter, Smart Fortwo, Mercedes G-Class, Suzuki S-Cross, Ford S-Max, Suzuki Vitara and Volkswagen T6 all posted very high increases.
Notable highlights among the latest launches included 3,401 units registered of the Seat Tarraco; 4,737 of the Citroen C5 Aircross, 5,258 of the Tesla Model 3, 4,884 of the Skoda Scala and 1,664 of the Kia Proceed.
