New passenger car registrations in the EU in November were down 20.5% year on year to 713,346 units, the lowest total for the month since 1993 and the fifth consecutive month to see a year-on-year decline, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said Dec. 17.
The volume was, however, 7.3% higher than in October and was at the highest level since July, the ACEA data showed.
Germany, the EU’s largest car market saw registrations fall 31.7% year on year to 198,258 units in November, which was 11% higher than October.
France, the second-largest market, saw sales fall 3.2% year on year to 121,994 units, which was up 2.9% from October.
Car sales in Italy dropped 24.6% year on year to 104,478 units, but climbed 3.4% month on month. The trend was the same in Spain, where 66,399 units were sold in November, down 12.3% year on year, but up 12.5% from October.
According to the data, only Bulgaria (plus 24%), Ireland (+22.9%) and Slovenia (+15.8%) showed higher year-on-year volumes of 24,134 units, 1,122 units and 4,126 units, respectively.
Over the first 11 months of 2021, new car registrations in the EU were 0.04% lower at 8.9 million units.
The ongoing semiconductor microchip shortage had dragged year-to-date sales performance into negative territory, despite 2020’s record low base for comparison, ACEA said.
Despite that, vehicle demand remained positive in three out of the four key EU markets over the 11-month period, namely Italy, which was up 8.6% to 1.4 million units, Spain up 3.8% to 773,396 units and France up 2.5% to 1.5 million units, although largest market Germany’s year-to-date dropped 8.1% year on year to 2.4 million units, the ACEA data showed.
— Jacqueline Holman
