Economic and Market Report: state of the EU auto industry – Full-year 2020

The full-year 2020 Economic and Market Report counts 26 pages and contains a wealth of information, it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

Key takeaways

EU economic outlook

• The EU economy ended 2020 in the grip of the deepest recession since World War II, with GDP contracting by a record 6.3% last year.
• Forecasts now predict GDP growth in the EU of 3.7% in 2021 and 3.9% in 2022.

Passenger car registrations

• The number of passenger cars sold worldwide fell by 15.3% to 63.4 million last year.
• Throughout 2020, the European car market posted a significant decline (-20.6%).
• In the United States, results went down 16.6% to 11.2 million units sold last year.  
• Chinese car sales reached 19.7 million units in 2020, a retreat of 6.8% on the 2019 total.

Passenger car production

• Passenger car production in Europe contracted by 22.3% to 14.1 million units. 
• The United States closed the year with car output dropping 17.6% compared with 2019.
• Brazil saw production thumble by 34.3% to 1.6 million units manufactured last year.
• More than 19.3 million cars were built in China overall last year, a drop of 6.4%.

Exports and imports of passenger cars

• The European Union exported €110 billion worth of passenger cars between January and November last year, some €21 billion less than the year before.
• With a 20% share, the United States accounted for the highest value of EU-imported cars, up 13.0% compared with January to November 2019.

Commercial vehicle registrations

• The number of vans, trucks and buses registered throughout the EU region contracted by 18.9% last year to 1.7 million units overall.
• The medium and heavy commercial vehicle category ended 2020 in negative territory, with registrations plummeting by 25.7% to 247,499 units for the full year.
• New bus and coach registrations throughout the European Union contracted by 20.3% in 2020, reaching 29,147 new registrations in total.

Commercial vehicle production

• Overall in 2020, European commercial vehicle and bus output decreased by 17.7% to around 3.0 million vehicles.
• South American commercial vehicle production ended 2020 at 0.6 million units, a contraction of 20.0% compared with 2019.
• Greater China recorded a significant increase in 2020, up 14.6% to 6 million units.
• Production in Japan and South Korea contracted by 16.3% to 1.2 million vehicles. 

Exports and imports of commercial vehicles

• Between January and November 2020, both imports and exports of commercial vehicles fell significantly (24.4% and 22.7% respectively) in terms of value.
• International trade in commercial vehicles provided the EU with a trade surplus of €6 billion in the first 11 months of 2020, €1.5 billion lower than the year before. 

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