The latest figures issued by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) on September 16 show that European Union (EU) new car registrations recorded in August this year totaled 753,709 units, increasing by 7.7 percent year on year but down 25.6 percent compared to July this year. ACEA indicated that in August new car registrations in the EU recorded year-on-year growth for the third time in the year.
In July this year new car registrations in the EU had amounted to 1,012,910 units, which was two percent less than in July last year. Looking at the largest markets in July, only Germany posted growth of 9.9 percent, while Italy, France, Spain and the UK saw their markets decline by 10.3 percent, 5.7 percent, four percent and 3.5 percent respectively, all compared to the same month last year.
In August, the most important markets recorded expansions; new car registrations increased in Germany by 18.3 percent, in the United Kingdom by 7.3 percent, in Spain by 5.9 percent, in France by 3.1 percent and in Italy by 1.5 percent, all on year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, in the first eight months of this year, new car registrations in the EU, which totaled 8,888,793 units, were down by 1.3 percent over the same period of 2010. In particular, in the first eight months of 2011, while Germany (+11.2 percent) performed better than in the same period a year ago, the UK (-6.1 percent), Italy (-12 percent) and Spain (-22.2 percent) saw their number of new car registrations decrease. Registrations in France (+0.4 percent) were almost level compared to last year.