D.he car buyers in the European Union bought significantly fewer new cars in February than in previous years. According to the European manufacturers’ association Acea, new registrations in the EU fell by a good 19 percent to around 771,500 vehicles last month. That was the worst result for this month since February 2013, announced the Acea on Wednesday. In Ireland and Sweden alone, the authorities registered more registrations of new vehicles than in the same month last year, but these countries have only a small share of the overall market with around 2 and 3 percent respectively.
The four lead markets of Germany, France, Spain and Italy recorded declines between a good 12 percent in Italy and more than 38 percent in Spain. In Germany the decrease was 19 percent, in France around 21 percent. In the first two months of the year, new registrations in the European Union fell by around 22 percent. According to Acea, the measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated uncertainty are also the reasons for the renewed decline in February.
Great Britain is shrinking even more
Demand in the former member state of Great Britain has fallen even more sharply than in the EU itself. Last month, car buyers registered a good third fewer vehicles there than in the same period of the previous year. In the first two months of the year, demand fell by a little more than 38 percent.
Among the Acea members, only Volvo from Sweden and the Munich-based BMW group were able to keep the losses in the single-digit percentage range in February. New registrations from Volvo fell by 2.6 percent, those of BMW including the Mini brand by a good 9 percent. The Japanese manufacturer Toyota, including its luxury brand Lexus, recorded a decline of a good 11 percent and thus also did better than the overall market in the EU. The French Renault group developed significantly weaker. New registrations of the brands Renault, Dacia, Lada and Alpine fell by almost 28 percent. The Japanese manufacturer Nissan sold a third fewer cars in the EU in February. Meanwhile, the demand for cars from the Japanese brands Mitsubishi and Honda fell by almost 60 and more than 40 percent, respectively.
.
#corona #measures #Europes #car #market #shrinking
