Last month saw sales drop by 59,237 sold units, to reach a total of 140,161 cars, Year to date, 782,094 cars were sold, down 36.4% on last year’s half-year total of 1,229,839.

Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee commented: “No reason to relax whatsoever, but it's worth noticing that the pace of year-on-year volume drain in June is less dramatic than in the preceding months since February. Matters could be much worse, if not for two policy-driven factors supporting the market in the right direction: 1) the (ongoing) reduction in base interest rates, as the door opener for a successful reanimation of credit- financed demand, and 2) the continuing (and recently increased) government support to buyers of new cars, by ways of subsidizing interest rates or the renewal of older and very old cars.

“Having said this, market sentiment for the remaining six months of the year remains muted. Based on a recent member poll, the AEB updates its full-year forecast for 2015 to 1.55 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, equivalent to a 36% reduction from 2014 actual result of 2.49 million.”