UK Car Manufacturing and European Car Registrations Fall

In July UK car production dipped 3.8 per cent or 5500 units, but remains 1.1 per cent up over the course of the year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). At the same time new car registrations fell 4.6 per cent. Meanwhile diesel registrations equalled their highest ever-level occupying 32.5 per cent of the total market.

“Record registrations in July 2003 set a challenging target for this month, but we expect consumers to remain confident and deliver another strong year for new car registrations, ” said SMMT Chief Executive Christopher Macgowan. In total the SMMT reported a total of 187,632 new registrations in July

On a wider scale, the number of new cars registered in Western Europe last year fell by 5.2 per cent. In the 12 months before July 1,225,760 units were registered according to figures published by Belgium’s La Tribune. The Association of European car manufacturers (ACEA), which produces the European monthly statistics did not originally intend to publish figures in August, says the newspaper.

The Europe wide decline was particularly marked in France where registrations fell by 10.1 per cent. Germany was down 7.1 per cent and the Belgium/Luxembourg zone fell 14 per cent, said La Tribune. Only Spain continued an upward trend, growing 3,8 per cent.

La Tribune explains that one explanation of the decline is the fact that there are fewer working days this year. But this is not the only reason. Last year French manufacturers suffered from the weakness of their domestic market. Peugeot and Renault experienced sales reductions of 10.4 and 6.1 per cent respectively. The leading European manufacturer, Volkswagen, also recorded reduced sales in July.

The figures are not necessarily a cause for alarm as when they are put into the context of the first seven months of the year they show a general rise of 2 per cent to 9,053,010 units across Western Europe.