Source:ACEA

21 DECEMBER 2011

New PASSENGER CAR REGISTRATIONS in the European Union (EU 27) decreased by 3.5% to  1 030 414 million units in November year-on-year, the third consecutive drop in negative territory following the Euro area's 17 months unresolved debt crisis, successive sovereign as well as corporate credit rating downgrades on top of additional austerity measures announcements throughout the Union. Following the previous month surge, new registrations in France dipped -7.7% to 179 038 units, as government new mix of expenditure cuts and tax increases froze consumer confidence. In Italy, where the automobile market has remained in the red since 2010 except this May and in August, new registrations plunged -9.2% to 132 579 new cars as a second drastic austerity plan added to a change of government due to the country's debt level.  Spain's fared equally and recorded -6.4% drop to 60 395 new units registered unlike the German market, an exception among the Euro area's four economic weights, where new registrations rose for the fifth consecutive time to 269 144 new units. In the UK, the Union's fifth largest economy , new registrations dropped -4.2% to over 134 000 new cars as the country experienced the biggest demonstration since the Thatcher years in discontent over public sector job losses and the Fall general spending cuts.
  
Lack of consumer confidence in western Europe spread to their eastern counterparts where new registrations dived -7.1% hammered down by Poland, the largest economy, a -20.5% drop to 24 919 new vehicles.  Romania's new units plunged -10.1% to under 11 000 new cars and neighboring Slovenia and Slovakia each averaged -8.3% new passenger car registrations and under 6000 new units each. By contrast, the Czech Republic's new registrations rose +4.5% to 15 920  new units and smaller markets (under 6000 cars including in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania) recorded positive figures.

EFTA countries --Switzerland, Norway, Iceland-- remained upbeat with new registrations up +11.1% to 41 481 new cars.

On the same period and per manufacturer, VW Group maintained the lead or +5.5% to 243 916 new vehicles registered while PSA Group's new units dived -13.7% to 121 959 new cars and Renault's fell -1.3% to 111 911. French cars recorded a bigger market loss, -11.5% on the same period despite 56.28% market share, compared with foreign made cars -2% decline and 43.72% penetration where VW Group led with 21 758 new cars or 12.14% of the domestic automobile market, followed by GM Group 5.11%, Ford 5.39%, Nissan 4.13% and Toyota 3.14%.

Eleven months into the year, new registrations in the European Union stayed in the red, -1.4% to 12 157 119 million and a less drastic -0.5% in eastern Europe to 692 083 new vehicles while EFTA countries +8.7% rise totaled 420 045 new cars registered. France's new registrations fell mechanically -0.3% to over 2 million new cars, Germany's rose +9.1% to 2 929 133 million, Spain's plunged -18.8% to 741 600 and Italy's -10.6% to 1 636 299 new vehicles. The UK's car market decreased by 4.5% to 1 822 065 million.

VW Group outperformed all others in volume with +7.4% new vehicles registered to 2 824 307 million and 23.2% market share or nearly two percentage point gain. PSA new registrations declined -8.2% to 1 533 274 million, except for Citroen +0.4%, and Group market penetration fell one percentage point to 12.6%. Renault new units declined -7.9% to 1 180 471 and market share rescinded to 9.7% (from 10.4%). French cars registrations on the domestic market on the same period contracted -4.7% with 56.88% market share while foreign made cars new units rose +6.1% and market share stood at 43.12%. Besides VW Group and in Europe,  BMW, Nissan, Kia, Volvo Car Corp., Mitsubishi and Jaguar Land Rover posted strong increases, on average above +9%,  and in volume even closed the gap with some of the European lead best models.