Passenger car registrations: +2.2% ten months into 2021; -30.3% in October

In October 2021, new passenger car registrations in the European Union contracted further (-30.3%), marking the fourth consecutive month of decline this year. With 665,001 units sold across the region, this was the weakest result in volume terms for a month of October since records began. Most EU markets suffered double-digit losses, including the four largest ones: Italy (-35.7%), Germany (-34.9%), France (-30.7%) and Spain (-20.5%).

Over the first 10 months of 2021, new car registrations in the EU were up 2.2% compared to one year earlier, totalling around 8.2 million units. Despite the recent drop in sales due to the ongoing impact of the semiconductor supply crisis, substantial gains earlier in the year helped to keep cumulative volumes in positive territory. Likewise, demand remained positive in three out of the four key EU markets: Italy (+12.7%), Spain (+5.6%) and France (+3.1%). By contrast, Germany’s year-to-date performance has worsened compared to one year ago (-5.2%).