Brussels, 16 January 2019 – In December 2018, the EU passenger car market declined for the fourth month in a row. Last month registrations fell by 8.4%, continuing the downward trend that started with the introduction of WLTP in September.
In December 2018, the EU passenger car market declined for the fourth month in a row. Last month registrations fell by 8.4%, continuing the downward trend that started with the introduction of WLTP in September. With the exception of Italy (+2.0%), all major EU markets saw demand for cars contract during the last month of the year.
Overall in 2018, car registrations in the EU remained more or less stable compared to the year before. Due to falling demand during the last four months of 2018, full-year growth was +0.1%. Although this increase is very modest, it still marks the fifth consecutive year of growth, with almost 15.2 million cars registered across the European Union.
Demand was mostly driven by the Central European countries, where new car registrations grew by 8.0% in 2018. Results were diverse among the five major EU markets, with Spain (+7.0%) and France (+3.0%) posting growth, registrations falling slightly in Germany (-0.2%) and demand contracting in Italy (-3.1%) and the United Kingdom (-6.8%) last year.