European car sales in May fell 4.9% - - the slowest rate this year as government scrappage schemes, reversed falls at Volkswagen and Fiat. Irish sales fell 50% in month; Down 64% in 2009.

In May, the number of new passenger car registrations in Europe was negative for the thirteenth consecutive month, with 4.9% fewer new units recorded than in May 2008. In total, 1,270,195 new cars were registered onto the market. Five months into the year, the European* market contracted by 13.9%. May counted on average one working day less across the region. 

In Western Europe, new registrations totaled 1,197,292 in May. Austria (+4.8%), Greece (+5.1%), France (+11.8%) and Germany (+39.7%) contributed to mitigating the drop to -3.2%, reflecting market support in the form of fleet renewal schemes. Similarly, Italy limited its downturn to a single digit decrease (-8.6%).

In the UK (-24.8%) and Spain (-38.7%), the announcement of incentive schemes could not translate into the registration figures yet. Five months into the year, new car registrations declined by 12.8%. Germany (+22.8%) was the only market to expand over that period. France (-1.4%) performed second best, followed by Austria (-3.0%). Among the major markets, the Italian contracted by 14.7%, the British by 27.9% and the Spanish by 42.7%.

Irish sales fell 49.7% in the month of May compared with the same period in 2008. Sales are down 53.9% in the first five month of 2009.

Results in the new EU Member States were down 26.0% in May, with only the Czech Republic (+20.5%) and Slovakia (+46.4%) posting growth. The downturn ranged from -3.1% in Poland to -80.4% in Latvia. From January to May, Poland (+0.7%), Slovakia (+1.3%) and the Czech Republic (+5.5%) performed better than over the same period a year ago, resulting in a 27.9% overall downturn for the region

* EU27 + EFTA, data for Cyprus and Malta unavailable

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