Passenger car registrations in the EU fell 3.9% in March, bringing the year-to-date decline to 3.3%.

 EU new car registrations were down 3.3% for the first three months of the year

Latest figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) show a total of 1,722,442 cars were registered last month; down from 1,792,880 units in March 2018. Demand was down in all major EU markets, with Italy posting the highest percentage drop (-9.6%), followed by Spain (-4.3%), the United Kingdom (-3.4%), France (-2.3%) and Germany (-0.5%).

For the first quarter of 2019, demand was down by 3.3%, totalling 4,032,881 units. In Germany, registrations remained almost flat (+0.2%), while the other key markets performed worse than in the first quarter of 2018, most notably Spain (-6.9%) and Italy (-6.5%).