The firm said that after seeing growth in 2014, the Western European passenger car market has recorded further gains in January, according to IHS Automotive estimates.

It added that key regional markets have recorded gains during the year, spurred on by improvements in the economic environment, incentives or a low base of comparison. However, demand in some remains well behind past figures in Western Europe as a whole.

IHS Automotive principal analyst Ian Fletcher added: ‘For 2015, IHS Automotive expects passenger car demand in Western Europe to continue to grow, although this time by just 2.1% y/y to around 12.4 million units. We expect gains to continue until the end of the decade along with the recovery, with registrations expected to hit almost 13.5 million units by this point. However, this will be well below previous levels.’