The latest figures issued by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) show that European Union (EU) new car registrations recorded in September this year totaled 1,232,707 units, increasing by 0.7 percent year on year and up 63.5 percent compared to August this year.
In September, the slight increase in new car registrations in the EU was supported by German demand. Germany was the only major market to post growth (+8.1 percent), while the downturn ranged from 0.8 percent in the UK to 1.3 percent in Spain, 1.4 percent in France and 5.7 percent in Italy.
However, in the January-September period this year, new car registrations totaled 10,122,983 units in the EU with a decrease of 1.1 percent over the same period of 2010. In particular, in the first nine months of 2011, the UK (-5.0 percent), Italy (-11.3 percent) and Spain (-20.7 percent) all saw their markets contract, while France remained more or less stable (+0.2 percent), and Germany posted double-digit growth (+10.8 percent).