European Car Market In Decline

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

European car buyers showed restraint in March. While Japanese brands were in demand, some of the southern European automakers again suffered heavy losses.

Setback for car manufacturers: demand on the European market fell significantly in March. The number of newly registered cars fell by 5.0 percent compared to the same month last year to 1,558,915, as the European industry association ACEA announced on Tuesday in Brussels. Since October last year, the automobile manufacturers had been able to look forward to an increase in demand. In the first three months of the new year, a total of 3.58 million cars were registered, which corresponds to a decrease of 2.3 percent compared to the previous year.

Different developments in Europe

However, there were different developments in the major European markets. Among the large countries, Germany (plus 11.4 percent) and France (plus 6.1 percent) once again shone. In contrast, Great Britain (minus 7.9 percent), Italy (minus 27.6 percent) and Spain (minus 29.1 percent) continued to decline, as did Portugal (minus 20.6 percent).

As in January and February, BMW stood out among the German manufacturers. The Munich-based company recorded an increase of 7.0 percent in the EU last month compared to the previous year to 87,677 vehicles. The Mini brand grew by 21.6 percent, while the BMW brand recorded an increase of 3.4 percent. VW came up with an increase of 3.8 percent to 335,939 units. Daimler had to accept a decline of 1.9 percent to 68,727 units.

Nissan and Mitsubishi with a clear plus

Among the foreign car companies, the Japanese manufacturer Nissan had the lead with a plus of 33.7 percent to 57,512. Mitsubishi also recorded a clear plus (31.7 percent to 12,543). Toyota increased 0.8 percent to 69,550 vehicles. The French industry representatives did not have a good month: PSA Peugeot Citroen had to accept a significant decline (minus 6.9 percent to 200,823), at Renault it was even harder (minus 14.6 percent to 139,441). The Italian Fiat group was hit particularly hard again. Here new registrations fell by 20.2 percent to 105,244.

American manufacturers also had to cope with falling demand. While the Opel parent company General Motors (GM) posted a slight decrease of 0.9 percent to 142,202 vehicles, Ford went down by 16.7 percent to 139,897 units.