Despite some of the region’s smaller markets putting in unusually strong performances that helped lift the Seasonally Adjusted Annualised Rate (SAAR) of sales to 13.2m units a year, the larger European markets failed to add to this as the pressing issue of the future of the eurozone continued to act as a major economic headwind.
For the year as a whole, car sales for Western Europe were estimated at 12.8m units, 1.4% below the 2010 total.
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Looking ahead to the 2012 market, the expectation is of a contraction in the order 5%, versus 2011, to 12.1m as a ‘mild economic recession’ in the region takes hold.
LMC said that there was a surge in sales in a number of the smaller countries in December. Belgium was a particularly strong performer as car buyers looked to take advantage of final government incentives to boost more environmentally friendly cars.
Germany was the only major market in the region to register an improvement in 2011 versus 2010. It was helped by a strong start to the year, when consumer confidence was soaring helped by low unemployment. However, LMC said that the market has moved down a gear since the worries over Greek debt intensified and consumer confidence has fallen back sharply. The December result, while still up in year-on-year terms, suggests the market is finding the going tougher. For 2012 LMC forecasts that the German car market will fall back to 3.1m.
LMC said that of the five major West European markets, the Spanish market is ‘certainly struggling the most’, with the December selling rate once again under 800,000 units a year, leaving the full year market down a hefty 18%.
Italian registrations continue to be a cause of concern also, said LMC. The selling rate for the final quarter of 2011 stood at 1.7m units/year and with the economy continuing to struggle, the market could slip further in 2012.
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