Passenger car registrations: +6.1% eight months into 2018; +10.5% in July and +31.2% in August

In July 2018, demand for new passenger cars in the EU grew by 10.5%, with almost 1.3 million cars registered. Growth was recorded in all major EU markets. Spain (+19.3%), France (+18.9%) and Germany (+12.3%) posted the highest increases, followed by Italy (+4.7%) and the United Kingdom (+1.2%) with more modest figures.

August usually is the lowest sales month of the year, but the EU passenger car market grew significantly (+31.2%) in August 2018, counting more than 1.1 million new vehicles. The most likely explanation for this exceptional growth, is the introduction of the new WLTP test that applies to all new car registrations from 1 September 2018. Hence, some auto manufacturers offered pre‐WLTP vehicles at extremely attractive prices. As a result, double‐digit percentage gains were registered in many EU countries, as well as in the five major markets.

Over the first eight months of 2018, passenger car registrations across the EU grew by 6.1% to reach 10.8 million units, largely boosted by the unusually strong performance during the summer months. Looking at the major markets, demand went up in Spain (+14.6%), France (+8.9%) and Germany (+6.4%), while car sales remained stable in Italy (‐0.1%) and contracted in the United Kingdom (‐4.2%).