Domestic demand recovery to boost EU carmakers: ACEA

European carmakers association ACEA believes EU domestic car sales should recover swiftly, mainly during the second half of the year.

In a note seen by Kallanish, the association predicts that car sales should increase 10% on-year in 2021. “The fallout of COVID is expected to persist into the first quarter of 2021, but the car market should pick up in the second half of the year as vaccination programmes progress,” ACEA says.

Oliver Zipse, the association’s new president and BMW’s chief executive, notes that European carmakers were able to limit damages last year thanks to the recovery of demand seen in Asian markets. “Nevertheless, the sustainable economic recovery of the European Union and local demand is vital for our return to pre-crisis strength,” he adds.

In 2020 car sales fell by over -23% y-o-y to 9.9 million units in the EU, down some 3m units compared with 2019.