Passenger car registrations across the European Union fell by 2%, according to ACEA Statistics.

European car registrations drop 2% in September

However, this comes after a record September 2016 that offered the highest sales records to date and is therefore not entirely surprising, the ACEA said. Total sales across the region were 1,427,105 units.

Momentum in some of the EU’s five key markets is starting to slow, especially in the United Kingdom (‐9.3%) and Germany (‐3.3%). However, strong performance in the Italian (+8.1%) and Spanish markets (4.6%) helped raise the overall European percentage.

During the first nine months of 2017, passenger car demand remained positive throughout the EU, with nearly 11.7 million new vehicles registered – an increase of 3.7% compared to the same period a year earlier. Italy (+9.0%), Spain (+6.7%), France (+3.9%) and Germany (+2.2%) performed well so far in 2017, although UK car demand has fallen by 3.9%.

New EU member states saw a rise in registrations of 13.8% during the period, the ACEA added.