In its latest report, the firm said West European car sales grew by 4.6% last month, with the UK, Spain and Germany largely responsible for this expansion. The region's selling rate stood at 11.8 million units/year, a little weaker than the April result of 12.1 million units/year, suggesting that there clearly remain headwinds to the market's recovery. It adds that it continues to forecast that the West European car market will reach 12 million units for the 2014 full year as economic growth and consumer confidence continue to head in the right direction, but the road to recovery remains a bumpy one.

The UK market increased, in year‐on‐year terms, for the 27th month in a row; a new record as the longest period of growth for the market. While the recovery in other countries in the region is more patchy, a combination of factors in the UK — including low interest rates, improving consumer confidence, and strong incentive activity — will likely see this market be the largest contributor to West European volume growth in 2014.

On the face of it, the German market picked up well in year‐on‐year terms, but an extra selling day and a weak May 2013 distort the year‐on‐year comparison. In selling rate terms, May 2014 was weaker than previous months even though incentive activity remains high. However, economic fundamentals appear solid and should help the market comfortably exceed 3mn units for the full year.

Of the other major markets in the region, Spain was easily the best year‐on‐year performer. The PIVE scrappage scheme remains a major support for the market and we continue to expect further extensions to the scheme to help support the industry. The Italian market slipped back in year‐on‐year terms in May though the selling rate continued to head in the right direction, standing at 1.4 million units/year last month. The same could not be said for the French selling rate though, it slipping back to a disappointing 1.7 million units/year.