Passenger car: new registrations down 2.8% over 11 months

Brussels, 15/12/2009 – New car registrations in Europe* rose by 26.6% in November 2009 compared to a drop of 25.8% in the same month last year. Contrasting performances in Western Europe (+30.6%) and the new EU Member States (-16.7%) reflected the impact of fleet renewal schemes in a number of main Western European markets. In 2009, the month of November counted on average one more working day across the EU, which contributed to the rise observed. New registrations amounted to 1,182,082 units in the month. From January to November, the market for new cars shrunk by 2.8%, composed of -0.7% in Western Europe and -27.4% in the new EU Member States, adding up to a total of 13,406,382 new vehicles registered.

In Western Europe, 1,116,845 new cars were registered in November, or 30.6% more than a year ago. Most markets expanded, with results ranging from +1% in Portugal to +57.6% in the UK. The increase was 48.3% in France, 37.3% in Spain, 31.2% in Italy and 19.7% in Germany. Eleven months into the year, the West European market remained stable (-0.7%) compared to the same period of 2008. Only three countries posted growth: France (+7.6%), Austria (+7.9%) and Germany (+25.4%). The Italian market contracted by 1.4%, the British by 8.8% and the Spanish by 20.8%.

In the new EU Member States, new registrations decreased by 16.7% in November. Only the Czech Republic (+31.5%) and Slovenia (+3.7%) saw their markets expand. The Polish** market remained stable (-0.4%). The downturn in the other countries ranged from -23.9% (in Slovakia) to -84.9% (in Latvia). From January to November, 778,063 new cars were registered,or 27.4% less than over the same period a year ago. The Slovak and Czech markets grew by 10.7% and 10.1% respectively. Poland** (+0.5%) remained the largest with a total of 291,715 units, while Romania became the third biggest market despite a 60.7% contraction.