Increased UK, EU new car registrations in December

According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which represents the 14 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers, new car registrations across the EU expanded 12.8 per cent in December 2022, the fifth consecutive month of growth during the year. Despite this positive result, only two of the region’s four major markets recorded growth. The German and Italian car markets had an extremely strong end to 2022, posting double-digit increases of 38.1 per cent and 21.0 per cent respectively. Spain, on the other hand, suffered a substantial decline (-14.1%), whereas France remained stable (-0.1%). UK registrations – counted separately from EU figures – grew 18.3 per cent year-on-year in December, to 128,462 units.

Overall, in 2022 the European Union passenger car market contracted by 4.6 per cent, mainly due to the impact of component shortages in the first half of the year. Although the market improved from August to December 2022, cumulative volumes stand at 9.3 million units, the region’s lowest level since 1993, when 9.2 million units were registered. Among the EU’s four largest markets, only Germany managed to post growth in 2022 (+1.1%), helped by the strong result in December. The other three markets all performed worse than in 2021, with Italy posting the steepest decline (-9.7%), followed by France (-7.8%) and Spain (-5.4%). New registrations in the UK were 2.0 per cent lower, at 1,614,063 units.