Car sales across the European Union will grow by at least 2.8% in 2017, according to the latest forecasts from Cap HPI.The firm predicts that across the five major EU markets, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, new car registrations this year will increase from 11.03 million to 11.33 million. In 2016 these five markets represented just over 75% of the EU total number of registrations and all posted volume growth last year, with Spain and Italy gaining the most.

Dylan Setterfield, international forecast manager with Cap HPI, said that despite the overall growth across the EU, the forecast is based on new registrations in the UK dropping to 2.5 million from 2.67 million, Germany’s growth remaining consistent with 2016’s performance and France, Italy and Spain continuing to grow, but at a slower rate than last year.

Setterfield added: “With lots of uncertainty around the EU for 2017 including elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands and Great Britain’s ongoing negotiations to leave the EU, overall growth of 2.8% year on year can be taken as a positive for the automotive industry.”