Economic and Market Report: key takeaways about the EU auto industry for 2016

ACEA has published its Economic and Market Report for the fourth quarter of 2016, with the latest figures on the economy as well as registrations, production and trade of passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

This 29-page Economic and Market Report contains a wealth of information and can be downloaded by clicking here. Some of the report’s key takeaways include:

Passenger car registrations

  • 14.6 million passenger cars were registered in Europe in 2016, up 6.8% compared to 2015 and representing the third consecutive year of growth.
  • Globally, 77.3 million passenger cars were sold in 2016, 5.5% more than in previous year.

Diesel’s market share

  • Overall in 2016, 49.5% of all new passenger cars registered in Western Europe ran on diesel, more than two percentage points less than in 2015.
  • In the EU‐15, diesel’s market share fell from 52.1% to 49.9% throughout 2016.

Alternative fuel vehicle registrations

  • 609,629 alternative fuel vehicles were registered in the European Union in 2016, up 4.1% compared to the prior year.
  • Despite impressive growth in recent years, alternative fuel vehicles still only accounted for 4.2% of total EU passenger car registrations in 2016 (roughly similar to 2015).
  • Electrically chargeable vehicles made up for about 1% of all car registrations in 2016.

Passenger car production

  • EU passenger car production increased by 2.7% in 2016, totalling 16.5 million units.
  • Almost reaching the pre‐crisis level of 16.6 million cars from 2007, the EU accounted for more than 21% of global passenger car production in 2016.

Exports of passenger cars

  • In 2016, the EU exported about 5.5 million passenger cars worth around €125 billion.
  • The United States remained the EU’s most valuable export market for passenger cars, with exports roughly totalling €38 billion – representing more than 30% of the total.

Commercial vehicle registrations

  • The EU market for commercial vehicles expanded throughout 2016, reaching more than 2.3 million registrations – up 11.7% compared to 2015.

Commercial vehicle production

  • In 2016, European commercial vehicle production grew by 5.9%, reaching 3.5 million units.

Exports of commercial vehicles

  • EU commercial vehicle exports increased significantly (+59.1%) in 2016, when compared to one year earlier.

If you have any additional questions about this Economic and Market Report, please contact the ACEA Statistics department

This report’s information was presumed correct at the time of publication. ACEA is not responsible for any inconsistencies or errors in the data.

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Reproduction of the content of this document is not permitted without the prior written consent of ACEA. Whenever reproduction is permitted, ACEA shall be referred to as source of the information. Quoting or referring to this document is permitted provided ACEA is referred to as the source of the information. 

Content type Publication
Vehicle types All vehicles
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