Brussels, 18 March 2020 – In February 2020, the EU passenger car market contracted by 7.4% to 957,052 units registered.
In February 2020, the EU passenger car market contracted by 7.4% to 957,052 units registered. This decline was the result of a combination of factors, including changes to vehicle taxation in various EU member states (which brought registrations forward to December 2019), weakening global economic conditions and consumer uncertainty. Germany recorded the most significant drop (-10.8%), followed by Italy (-8.8%), Spain (-6.0%) and France (-2.7%).
From January to February 2020, total registrations of new cars in the European Union1 were 7.4% lower than in the same period the year before. So far in 2020, each of the four major EU markets faced falling demand: Germany (-9.0%), France (-7.8%), Italy (-7.3%) and Spain (-6.8%).
1 European Union refers to the new composition with 27 member states (excluding the United Kingdom). For year-on-year comparisons, historical data are recalculated to adjust to the new EU27 perimeter.