In terms of sales volume, May was comparable to the same month in 2007 — a period preceding the onset of crisis phenomena in the automotive industry.
All key European Union markets were in positive territory last month: the largest growth was shown by Germany (+12.9%) and Spain (+11.2%), followed by France (+8.9%) and Italy (+8.2%). The exception was the British market, where registrations of new passenger cars fell by 8.5%.
Germany remains the leader among EU countries — 323,952 passenger cars were sold there in a month.
Italy is in second place: in May, residents of this country purchased 204,113 cars.
France closes the top three with 191,416 cars sold.
Among European automakers, VW Group takes the first spot as usual, having sold 335,187 cars on the European market. Growth amounted to 8.2% compared to May last year.
Renault Group retains second place, selling 151,798 cars, which is 10.2% more than in May 2016.
The third result belongs to PSA Group — 141,557 units, with an increase of 4.7%.
In the first five months of 2017, 6,719,209 vehicles were registered in the European Union, which is 5.3% higher than the same period a year earlier. Almost all major markets in the region provided positive dynamics: Italy grew by 8.1%, Spain by 7.3%, Germany by 4.7%, France by 3.3%. In the UK, on the contrary, a slight decline in sales was noted — by 0.6%.
