European Passenger Car Registrations Down

The European automobile manufacturers association (ACEA) today released the latest European car registration statistics. In September 2004 1,353,817 units were registered across western Europe. This represents a decrease of –0.6 per cent (-0.7 per cent in the EU-15) compared with September 2003.

On the national level, Spain was the only country out of the top five to show any kind of increase, growing 6.2 per cent. The UK registration figures show a two per cent fall during the same period, while the year-to-date figure grew a third of one per cent.

Another interesting facet of September’s registration figures referred to some of the new EU members. The ACEA figures show that the number of registrations taking place in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland all fell significantly.

Overall the number total number of registrations that took place in the EU15 and EFTA countries grew 1.5 per cent. The countries’ year-on-year statistics remained virtually flat, falling 0.6 per cent.

The distribution of new car registrations by manufacturer show that German car producers Daimler Chrysler and Volkwagen fell by 1.6 and two per cent respectively. At the same time Swedish manufacturers Volvo and Saab, both registered 18 per cent more than they did at the same time last year.