Passenger car registrations: +3.2% first quarter of 2021; +87.3% in March

In March 2021, registrations of new passenger cars in the European Union increased by 87.3%, the result of last year’s exceptionally low base of comparison caused by the strict COVID-19 restrictions introduced in most markets in March 2020. 1,062,446 new cars were sold in the EU last month, compared to 567,253 during the same month in 2020. Triple-digit gains were posted by three of the four largest EU markets: Italy saw the biggest increase (+497.2%), followed by France (+191.7%) and Spain (+128.0%). The German market also showed strong gains, with sales up 35.9% in March.

During the first quarter of 2021, EU demand for new cars grew by 3.2% to reach 2.6 million units registered in total. Despite steep declines during the first two months of the year (-24.0% in January and -19.3% in February), March’s strong results managed to offset the negative trend. Looking at the major EU markets, last month’s gains brought the cumulative performances of Italy and France into positive territory (up 28.7% and 21.1% respectively). On the other hand, both Spain (-14.9%) and Germany (-6.4%) continued to post declines so far in 2021, although significantly less dramatic than in the preceding months.