EU car sales show uptick in April, but down in year to date

EU car sales show uptick in April, but down in year to date
17 May 2011


Brussels -- ACEA, the European federation of vehicle manufacturers has issued April data on the EU registrations of new cars.

ACEA said April demand for new cars in the EU was 4.1 percent less than in the same month last year. New registrations amounted to 1 089 118 units April 2010 counted one more working day across the region Four months into the year, registrations totaled 4,674,457 units, or 2.7 percent less than over the same period a year earlier.

From January to April, growth prevailed in two thirds of the markets but the downturn recorded in the UK (8.5 percent), Italy (-19.0 percent) and Spain (-26.3 percent) resulted in a 2.7 percent decline in the EU* demand. Germany, the largest market, registered over 1 million units in the first four months of 2011, or 10.7 percent more than in the same period last year, followed by France with 817,211 new cars (+4.0 percent).

April results showed a contraction of the major markets, except for Germany (+2.6 percent), leading to an overall 4.1 percent downturn. Demand was down 2.2 percent in Italy, 7.4 percent in the UK, 11.1 percent in France and 23.3 percent in Spain. Germany was the biggest market with 266,251 new registrations, followed by France (169,757), Italy (157,309), the UK (137,746) and Spain (71,808).