European new car registrations continue to slide
European new car registration growth remained negative in February, despite showing signs of improvement compared to recent months.
Latest figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) show new car registrations fell 1.0% in February compared to the same month last year as the ripples from September’s introduction of WLTP continued. However, registrations continued to chart a slightly fluctuating path of improvement following the 4.6% decline in January, the 8.4% seen in December, 8% in November, 7.3% in October and the 23.5% fall seen in September.
The 1.0% fall in February came despite some major EU markets showing a slight recovery. After a five-month decline, demand for new cars increased modestly in Germany (+2.7%), France (+2.1%) and the United Kingdom (+1.4%) last month. However, in Spain (-8.8%) and Italy (-2.4%) car registrations continued to decrease for the sixth consecutive month.
For the first two months of the year, registrations were down 2.9%. Some markets saw a strong drop compared to last year, most notably Spain (-8.4%) and Italy (-4.9%), but new passenger car registrations remained more or less stable in Germany (+0.6%), France (+0.5%) and the United Kingdom (-0.6%).