The European car market grew minimally in 2019

It should be emphasized that this result was the best for December in the entire history of observations. In part, this dynamic is explained by the effect of a low comparative base — a year earlier, in December 2018, the number of registrations decreased by 8.4%. However, changes in the market climate itself also played a role, ensuring such an impressive surge.

France (+27.7%) and Sweden (+109.3%) demonstrated significant growth — in both countries, substantial adjustments to the tax burden linked to CO2 emissions were announced for 2020. The Netherlands (+113.9%), in turn, increased the taxation rate for corporate electric vehicles from 4% to 8%, starting in January next year. As a result, all EU member states, including the five largest markets, ended December with confident growth.

Germany again became the leader in the number of new passenger car registrations, with the figure reaching 283,380 vehicles, which is 19.5% more than a year earlier.

France followed — in December, 211,194 cars were registered there.

The top three is closed by the UK with a result of 148,997 new passenger cars and an increase of 3.4%.

Among European concerns, VW Group traditionally holds the first position. In a month, the company sold 277,930 cars in EU markets, increasing sales by 21.1% compared to December last year.

The second place is occupied by PSA Group with 154,047 cars sold. Here, a decrease of 2.2% was recorded compared to the same period a year earlier.

The third result is from RENAULT Group: 144,835 units and growth of 23.1%.

According to the results of the entire 2019, the volume of new car registrations in the European Union increased by 1.2% and exceeded 15.3 million units, with positive dynamics maintained for the sixth consecutive year. The beginning of the year was weak due to the introduction in September 2018 of a new procedure for testing cars for compliance with fuel efficiency and environmental standards WLTP. However, the fourth quarter, especially December, allowed the EU market to turn positive for the year.

Among the five key EU markets, Germany showed the most significant growth over the past year (+5.0%), followed by France (+1.9%) and Italy (+0.3%). At the same time, the Spanish (-4.8%) and British (-2.4%) markets faced a drop in demand in 2019.