Passenger car registrations: -0.7% 10 months into 2019; +8.7% in October

In October 2019, the EU passenger car market grew by 8.7% to reach 1,177,746 units registered. This marked the highest October total on record since 2009. During the same month last year, registrations fell by 7.3% after the WLTP test came into effect, setting a low base of comparison for 2019. As a result, nearly all EU countries posted increases in October, with the exception of Cyprus and the United Kingdom. Four of the five major EU markets noted strong gains, Germany (+12.7%), France (+8.7%), Italy (+6.7%) and Spain (+6.3%), while car sales contracted in the UK (‐6.7%).

From January to October, new-car registrations were down 0.7% compared to the first 10 months of 2018. Although demand increased across the EU in September and October, Germany (+3.4%) remained the only major European market to record growth so far in 2019. By contrast, Spain (-6.3%) and the United Kingdom (-2.9%) saw the strongest declines 10 months into the year, while the Italian (-0.8%) and French (-0.3%) markets have almost recovered to 2018 volumes.