The decline in indicators is explained by the fact that Easter this year fell in April, which directly affected sales volumes in the reporting period.
A decrease in demand for new passenger cars was recorded in all key European Union countries. It was most noticeable in the UK, where the decline was 19.8%. In Germany, sales fell by 8.0%, in France by 6.0%, and in Italy by 4.6%. The only exception was the Spanish market, which last month showed a slight increase of 1.1%.
At the same time, positive dynamics (+8.2%) were provided by the countries of the so-called EU-12 group, which joined the union starting in 2004.
The undisputed leader among European markets remains Germany — in April of this year, 290,697 passenger cars were sold there.
France holds the second position in the ranking: residents of the country purchased 171,871 cars in a month.
The top three is rounded out by Italy with sales of 160,359 cars.
Among automakers, the VW Group traditionally occupies the first line, having sold 293,608 cars on the European market. At the same time, compared to April last year, the company's sales fell by 8.8%.
In second place is the Renault Group with 128,013 cars sold, which is 2.6% less than the result of April 2016.
The third position in terms of the number of cars sold is occupied by the PSA Group — 124,994 units, which is 6.4% less.
Despite the April decline, the results of the first four months of 2017 show positive dynamics in demand for new passenger cars. During this period, 5,332,854 vehicles were registered in the European Union — 4.7% more than in the same period last year. All major European markets contributed to the overall growth: Italy added 8%, Spain 6.1%, Germany 2.5%, France 2%, and the UK 1.1%.
