Big drop in car sales in the EU in October

In October, sales of new passenger cars in the European Union fell sharply. Specifically, according to official data from ACEA, new car registrations shrank by 30.3%.

Last October was the fourth consecutive month of declining sales of new cars in the EU.

New car sales in the EU amounted to 665,001 units. This is the lowest performance in the tenth month of the year since there are official figures in ACEA.

Most EU markets suffered double-digit losses, including the four largest EU markets: Italy (-35.7%), Germany (-34.9%), France (-30.7%) and Spain (-20.5 %).

In the first 10 months of 2021, new car registrations in the EU increased by 2.2% compared to a year earlier, reaching a total of around 8.2 million units.

Despite the recent decline in sales due to the continuing impact of the semiconductor supply crisis, significant gains earlier in the year helped keep cumulative volumes on positive ground. In particular, in the ten months of January-October, the volume of new car sales in the EU increased by 2.2% compared to the same period last year.

Similarly, demand remained positive in three of the four key EU markets: Italy (+ 12.7%), Spain (+ 5.6%) and France (+ 3.1%). In contrast, Germany’s performance compared to last year has decreased by 5.2%.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) represents the 15 largest truck and bus manufacturers based in Europe: BMW Group, CNH Industrial, DAF Trucks, Daimler, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Jaguar Land Rover, Renault Group, Stellantis, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Cars and Volvo Group.

Source: AMPE