Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen brand remain by far the sales leaders in Europe.
European car sales increased 7.1% during May, bringing total EU registrations in the 27 markets from January to May to -0.8% below those in the same period during 2010. Since March 2010, when demand for new cars increased 11.0%, only the month of February has been positive (+0.9%) compared to the previous year. Year-to-date to May a total of 5,885,631 new cars were registered, down -0.8% in January to May period a year earlier, the automakers association ACEA said today.
During May, a total of 1,208,583 new cars were registered in the EU. Registrations were up in Germany (+22.0%), France (+6.1%) and Italy (+3.6%), while the market contracted by 23.3% in Spain and 1.7% in the UK. Overall, most countries saw demand for cars increase, leading to a 7.1% growth across the EU.
European car sales are of concern for U.S. taxpayers because they have been undermining the financial performance of General Motors and Fiat, which controls Chrysler. Both GM’s Opel subsidiary and Fiat are struggling in Europe. Even Ford Motor results are negatively affected by Europe, which remains a drag on its earnings.
May sales in Ford’s traditional 19 European markets rose by 10.5% to 116,500, up by 11,100. By comparison, the total industry increase in these countries only saw an 8.8% improvement.
Five months into the year, although a majority of EU markets expanded, important ones such as the British (-7.3%), Italian (-15.1%) and Spanish (-25.7%) contracted, leading to an overall downturn. In absolute figures, Germany and France registered over a million vehicles from January to May, followed by the UK and Italy, with over 840,000 units.
The European passenger car market shrank for the third straight year in 2010, with registrations declining by 5.5%, from 2009. With a total of 13,360,599 new units registered throughout the year, manufacturing remains well below the peak of more than 16 million recorded in 2007 before the collapse of the global financial markets caused the ongoing Great Recession. (See EU Auto Sales Slump Continues in 2010 for Third Straight Year)
