Passenger car: European registrations down 18.3% in February
Brussels, 13/02/2009 – In February, 968,159 new passenger cars were registered in Europe*, 18.3% less compared to the same month of 2008.
Brussels, 13/02/2009 – In February, 968,159 new passenger cars were registered in Europe*, 18.3% less compared to the same month of 2008. The downturn was more marked in the new EU Member States (-30.3%) than in Western Europe (-17.3%), where the German market pushed aggregate registrations upward. There was on average one working day less across Europe in February. Two months into the year, the European* market was down 22.6% compared to January- February last year. In Western Europe, a total of 902,037 new passenger cars was registered in February (-17.3%). Germany stood out with a 21.5% growth, carried by strong demand in certain market segments following the recent motor vehicle tax reform and scrapping bonus introduced by the German government. Except for Luxembourg (+0.3%), all other countries faced a downturn, varying from -83.6% in Iceland to -13.2% in France. The downturn of the French market was cushioned by fleet renewal incentives as well. Major markets such as the UK (-21.9%), Italy (-24.4%) and Spain (-48.8%) again recorded an important decrease.
From January to February, new passenger car registrations in Western Europe dropped by 22.0%. Only Germanypostedgrowthduringthatperiod(+4.0%).The French market declined by 10.6%, followed by the British ( 28 2%) Italian ( 28 5%) and Spanish ( 45 5%) marketsBritish (-28.2%), Italian (-28.5%) and Spanish (-45.5%) markets. In the new EU Member States, passenger car registrations fell by 30.3% in February, with mixed individual country results. Poland registered the most cars (30,194) and improved last year’s performance by 7.3%. Other major markets were down with 7.7% (Czech Republic), 46.4% (Hungary) and 66.5% (Romania).
Looking at the cumulative figures from January to February, Poland ranked first in absolute numbers with 56,841 new cars registered (+0.7%), followed by Romania (-58.8%), the Czech Republic (- 10.0% ) and Hungary (-31.4%). The overall decrease in the new EU Member States was -22.9% two months into the year.
* EU27 + EFTA, data for Cyprus and Malta unavailable
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About ACEA
- The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) represents the 14 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Renault Group, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo Group.
- Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA, and follow us on www.twitter.com/ACEA_auto or www.linkedin.com/company/ACEA/.
- Contact: Francesca Piazza, Senior Statistics Manager, fp@acea.auto.
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About the EU automobile industry
- 13.0 million Europeans work in the automotive sector
- 11.5% of all manufacturing jobs in the EU
- €374.6 billion in tax revenue for European governments
- €79.5 billion trade surplus for the European Union
- Almost 8% of EU GDP generated by the auto industry
- €58.8 billion in R&D spending annually, 32% of EU total
