Source:ACEA

17 FEBRUARY 2012

New PASSENGER CAR REGISTRATIONS in the European Union (EU 27) dropped -7.1%  in January year-on-year to under one million units as major markets contracted anew in an unstable context on top of austerity measures impact on potential buyers purchasing power: France's car market plunged -20.7% to 147 057 vehicles followed by Germany's -0.4% decline to 210 195 vehicles, and Italy's -16.9% drop to under 140 000 units. Spain's +2.5% surge to 54 961 new cars and the UK's flat performance to 128 853 units failed to offset overall figures and despite east European countries +18.8% rebound due to sustained demand to 62 525 units. With the exception of Slovenia where the auto market recorded a significant downturn, -7.7% to 5011 vehicles, new registrations in Poland jumped +22.2% to 24 313 cars, followed the Czech Republic's +10.6% to 12 921 units, along with Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, on average each nearly 5000 vehicles.

In EFTA countries, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, new passenger car registrations increased +11.8% led by Switzerland +15% leap to 23 386 vehicles, and Norway‘s +4.5% uninterrupted performance to over 10 000 cars. Iceland's 320 new acquisitions added to the region's upbeat performance.   

Per manufacturer, and on the same period, the top ten list in positive territory was reduced to four household names: VW Group new passenger cars rose +0.7% to 231 151 new vehicles but market share rose to 23.9% (from 22%), Daimler's +4.6% gain to 47 469 units recorded 4.9% market share (from 4.4%), Hyundai's +17.9% new vehicles to 32 081 increased market share by nearly one percentage point to 3.3%, Kia's +30.6% new cars to over 21 500 saw market penetration rise to 2.2% (from 1.6%), and Jaguar Land Rover Group +39.2% new registrations to 9 620 vehicles recorded  1% market share (from 0.7%).

Faced with accrued competition from foreign auto makers, PSA Group's new registrations declined -14.9% to 121 480 units as its western Europe market share nearly dropped one percentage point to 12.5%.  Foreign cars market share in France was 46.6% according to the French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA) January data, compared with PSA's 31% and Renault Group 22.3%. Renault Group's new units registered on the same period and in western Europe plunged -25.2% to 80 742 and market penetration fell two percentage points to 8.3%. The Group's best of class Dacia retained its 1.9% market share despite -6.6% new registrations while Renault recorded the biggest drop, a two percentage point slide to 6.4% market share with new registrations down by  29.4% to 62 109 units. On the domestic market, Dacia Sandero and Dacia Duster topped however the 100 Passenger Car list.  
French cars on the domestic market still reaped the lion's share or  53.5% of new cars registered but with increased difficulty considering foreign cars 46.5% market penetration. On the domestic market, new French passenger cars registrations dived -29.5% to 78 857 new units while  foreign cars declined -7.3% to 68 476 vehicles.