Last year saw 12,550,771 new passenger cars registered in the EU, with the 5.7% coming on the back of six consecutive years of decline. Looking at the largest markets, Spain recorded the largest increase over the year (+18.1%) followed by the UK (+9.3%), Italy (+4.2%) and Germany (+2.9%), while France remained stable (+0.3%).

The full-year growth followed strong December figures, with registrations up for the 16th consecutive month (+4.7%), reaching 951,329 units sold.

Looking at the largest markets, the demand increase was mainly led by the significant growth recorded in Spain (+21.4%), followed by the UK (+8.7%), Germany (+6.7%), and Italy (+2.4%), while France (-6.7%) performed less well than in the same month last year. Substantial growth also posted by the new EU member states (+9.6%) and by the EFTA countries (+9.8%) contribute to explain last month’s positive outcome.