In February, 968,159 new passenger cars were registered in Europe, 18.3% less compared to the same month of 2008. The downturn was more marked in the new EU Member States (-30.3%) than in Western Europe (-17.3%), where the German market pushed aggregate registrations upward. There was on average one working day less across Europe in February. Two months into the year, the European market was down 22.6% compared to January- February last year.
The Association of European Automobile Manufacturers says, in Western Europe, a total of 902,037 new passenger cars was registered in February (-17.3%). Germany stood out with a 21.5% growth, carried by strong demand in certain market segments following the recent motor vehicle tax reform and scrapping bonus introduced by the German government. Except for Luxembourg (+0.3%), all other countries faced a downturn, varying from -83.6% in Iceland, 62.9% in Ireland to -13.2% in France. The downturn of the French market was cushioned by fleet renewal incentives as well. Major markets such as the UK (-21.9%), Italy (-24.4%) and Spain (-48.8%) again recorded an important decrease. From January to February, new passenger car registrations in Western Europe dropped by 22.0%. Only Germany posted growth during that period(+4.0%).The French market declined by 10.6%, followed by the British ( 28 2%) Italian ( 28 5%) and Spanish ( 45 5%) markets British (-28.2%), Italian (-28.5%) and Spanish (-45.5%) markets.
In the new EU Member States, passenger car registrations fell by 30.3% in February, with mixed individual country results. Poland registered the most cars (30,194) and improved last year’s performance by 7.3%. Other major markets were down with 7.7% (Czech Republic), 46.4% (Hungary) and 66.5% (Romania). Looking at the cumulative figures from January to February, Poland ranked first in absolute numbers with 56,841 new cars registered (+0.7%), followed by Romania (-58.8%), the Czech Republic (- 10.0% ) and Hungary (-31.4%). The overall decrease in the new EU Member States was -22.9% two months into the year.
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