EU car registrations saw a very moderate rise of 0.1% in 2018 as Central European countries continued to bolster the market.

The EU new car market rose 0.1% in 2018, marking the fifth consecutive year of growth

The latest figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) show that although the uplight was marginal, it still marks the fifth consecutive year of growth, with almost 15.2 million cars registered across the European Union.

Demand was mostly driven by the Central European countries, where new car registrations grew by 8.0% in 2018. Results were diverse among the five major EU markets, with Spain (+7.0%) and France (+3.0%) posting growth, registrations falling slightly in Germany (-0.2%) and demand contracting in Italy (-3.1%) and the UK (-6.8%) last year.

2018’s moderate growth comes on the back of an 8.4% downturn in December that continued the downward trend started with the introduction of WLTP in September.

With the exception of Italy (+2.0%), all major EU markets saw demand for cars contract during the last month of the year.