Such a significant increase is explained by the fact that in the previous year Easter fell in March, which made demand noticeably more modest during that period. The result was 1,891,583 cars sold over the past month, an absolute record for the European Union's March market.
Almost all key EU car markets showed impressive dynamics: the largest growth was recorded in Italy — 18.2%, followed by Spain with 12.6% and Germany with 11.4%. The UK and France also posted positive registration dynamics — 8.4% and 7% respectively.
Germany remains the leader among European markets: in March of this year, 359,683 passenger cars were sold there.
Italy takes second place — residents of this country purchased 226,163 cars in March.
The top three is rounded out by France with 226,134 cars sold.
Among automakers, VW Group traditionally holds the first line, with sales in the European market reaching 403,289 cars, which is 6.5% higher than last year's result.
RENAULT Group rose to second place, selling 180,481 cars and demonstrating sales growth of 14.4%.
The third sales volume indicator belongs to PSA Group — 178,810 units (+6.9%).
In the first quarter of 2017, 4,141,269 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union countries, which is 8.4% more than in the same period last year. All major markets in the region contributed to the overall growth: Italy added 11.9%, Spain — 7.9%, Germany — 6.7%, the UK — 6.2%, and France — 4.8%.
