Passenger car: registrations drop 6.4% in December, -1.7% in 2011

Brussels, 17/01/2012 – In December, new passenger car registrations in the EU* dropped by 6.4% to 953,108 units.

Over the year 2011, demand for new cars was decreased by 1.7%, bringing the total number of units registered at 13,111,209. Full-year registrations decreased for the fourth consecutive year.

In December, Germany was the largest market in units with 244,501 new registrations and the only major one to post growth (+6.1%). Spain (-3.6%) and the UK (-3.7%) recorded single-digit drops, while Italy (-15.3%) and France (-17.7%) faced a double-digit downturn.

In 2011, most of the significant markets declined, from -2.1% in France to -4.4% in the UK, -10.9% in Italy and -17.7% in Spain. Germany was the exception as demand for new cars grew by 8.8% over twelve months. It remained the largest market with a total of 3,173,634 new registrations, followed by France (2,251,669 units) and the UK (1,941,253 units).