Passenger car: new EU members’ dynamic growth in April offsets deceleration in Western Europe

Brussels, 16/05/2007- In spite of one extra working day across the region, European* (EU25+EFTA) market for new passenger cars remained sluggish in April 2007. In total, 1,291,634 new cars were registered, barely less than last year (–0.6%). While the new EU member states enjoyed the fourth consecutive month of growth (+12.9%), Western Europe performed below the trend (–1.5%). Cumulative results show a similar tendency for these regions. As regards national situations, none of the main markets reversed their first quarter trend. Italy (+9.6%) kept on benefiting from the government scrapping incentives whereas the UK figures were boosted (+4.3%) by supermini car registrations. In contrast, private customers refrained from buying new cars in Germany (–7%), Spain (–6%) and France (–5%). Five other EU15 countries posted increases, with Sweden (+5.3%) and the Netherlands (+6.2%) leading the way.

Cumulative figures confirm a slightly downward path in West European registrations (–1%), with downscaling registrations in Germany (–9.2%), France (–2.3%) and Spain (–1.9%). Then again, British (+3.1%), Italian (+5.4%) and other five EU15 countries’results were stronger than in the first four months of 2006. Once and again, the majority of the new EU member states improved their results in April 2007. Apart from Hungary (–21.3%) and Slovakia (–4.2%), all other countries posted high increases ranging from +4.3% in the Czech Republic to +39.6% in Latvia. All in all, the first four months of the year brought an important 14.2% growth in the new EU Members’new car registrations.