The improved performance resulted in the final seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) increasing slightly from 12.529 million in January to 12.580 million.

The German passenger car market posted a robust set of sales results in February with an increase of 6.6% y/y to 223,254 units. For the first two months of the year, sales rose 4.6% y/y to 434,591 units.

In France, passenger car registrations reached 147,130 units, a gain of 4.1% y/y in February. There was no difference in the number of working days this month, and year to date (YTD) sales rose by 5.1% y/y to 280,300 units.

The gains for the Spanish passenger car market continued in February on the back of the Plan Industrial del Vehículo Ecológico (PIVE) scrapping incentives which are now well into their seventh round. Registrations in February grew by 26.1% y/y to 86,717 units while combined YTD sales increases stood at 154,836 units, an improvement of 26.7% y/y.

The Italian passenger car market also gained in February by 13.2% y/y with registrations during the month increased from 118,976 units to 134,697 units, taking sales in the YTD to 266,555 units, an increase of 12.3% y/y

The UK passenger car registrations have recorded an improvement of 12.0% y/y to 76,958 units in February. The increase this month has resulted in a positive benefit to the year to date (YTD) with registrations up in the first two months by 8.3% y/y to 241,814 units.

For 2015, IHS Automotive expects passenger car demand in Western Europe to continue to grow, although this time it will by just 2.1% y/y to around 12.4 million units. IHS expects gains to continue until the end of the decade along with the recovery, with registrations expected to hit almost 13.5 million units although this figure remains well behind pre-crisis levels.