New Car Market Begins to Pick Up

The market for new passenger cars in Europe (EU27 and EFTA markets) displayed a modest increase of 2.4 per cent to 1,461,859 units in June on the back of scrappage incentive schemes in operation in more than ten EU Member States. June’s figures represent the first market increase in 14 months. Accumulative figures for the first half of 2009 show an 11 per cent drop in European new car registrations compared to the same period in 2008, with a total of 7,425,762 new cars registered compared to 8,346,828 the year before.

New registrations in Western Europe rose by 4.6 per cent in June, totalling 1,382,189 units. Countries with an incentive scheme mostly posted growth, with demand particular strong in Germany – Europe’s largest market grew by an impressive 40.5 per cent. UK new passenger vehicles registrations shrank 15.7 per cent in June to 176,264 units, the decrease softened by newly introduced scrappage scheme. During the first six months of the year, only Germany and France performed better than in 2008, displaying increases of 26.1 and 0.2 per cent respectively. Overall, the West European market declined by 9.8 per cent, and the UK experienced a 25.9 per cent decrease to 924,955 units.

In the new EU Member States, new car registrations fell by 25.3 per cent in June, with only the Czech Republic (18.0 per cent) and Slovakia (+57.4 per cent) posting growth. The sharpest downturn was recorded by Latvia, where the market shrank 72.6 per cent compared with June 2008. Six months into the year, Slovakia (18.4 per cent), the Czech Republic (7.9 per cent) and Poland (0.2 per cent) saw their markets expand while the overall regional market decreased by 27.1 per cent.