New car sales in Europe rose by 26.6% in November 2009 compared to a drop of 25.8% in the same month last year. Sales were down 2.8% in the 11 months of 2009, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (French: Association des Constructeurs Européens d'Automobiles; abbreviated ACEA). Only 520 units were sold in Ireland in November and sales were down by 62.3% year to date.
The ACEA said contrasting performances in Western Europe (+30.6%) and the new EU Member States (-16.7%) reflected the impact of public financed car scrappage schemes in a number of main Western European markets.
New registrations amounted to 1,182,082 units in the month. From January to November, the market for new cars shrunk by 2.8%, composed of -0.7% in Western Europe and -27.4% in the new EU Member States, adding up to a total of 13,406,382 new vehicles registered.
In Western Europe, 1,116,845 new cars were registered in November, or 30.6% more than a year ago. Most markets expanded, with results ranging from +1% in Portugal to +57.6% in the UK. The increase was 48.3% in France, 37.3% in Spain, 31.2% in Italy and 19.7% in Germany. Eleven months into the year, the West European market remained stable (-0.7%) compared to the same period of 2008. Only three countries posted growth: France (+7.6%), Austria (+7.9%) and Germany (+25.4%).
The Italian market contracted by 1.4%, the British by 8.8% and the Spanish by 20.8%.
In the new EU Member States, new registrations decreased by 16.7% in November. Only the Czech Republic (+31.5%) and Slovenia (+3.7%) saw their markets expand. The Polish** market remained stable (-0.4%). The downturn in the other countries ranged from -23.9% (in Slovakia) to -84.9% (in Latvia). From January to November, 778,063 new cars were registered, or 27.4% less than over the same period a year ago. The Slovak and Czech markets grew by 10.7% and 10.1% respectively. Poland (+0.5%) remained the largest with a total of 291,715 units, while Romania became the third biggest market despite a 60.7% contraction.
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