EU new car registrations down 7.7 percent in Q1

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 12:19:04 (GMT+2)

The latest figures issued by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) show that European Union (EU) new car registrations recorded in March this year totaled 1.45 million units, down by seven percent compared to March 2011, indicating a year-on-year decrease for the sixth consecutive month. The association noted that March registrations have not been at this level since 1998.

In March this year, the UK and Germany performed better than they did in the same month a year earlier with increases of 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent respectively, while passenger car demand decreased 26.7 percent in Italy, 23.2 percent in France and 4.5 percent in Spain, all on year-on-year basis.

Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year, new car registrations totaled 3.3 million units in the EU, with a decrease of 7.7 percent from the same period of 2011. In particular, in the first three months of 2012, Germany (1.3 percent) and the UK (0.9 percent) saw their markets expand slightly, while Spain dropped 1.9 percent, and Italy (-21 percent) and France (-21.6 percent) posted significant contractions, all compared to the same period last year.