EU's new car sales in March: Declining sales volume in Britain and Germany

According to the data released by the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA), in March of this year, the number of passenger vehicle registrations in the European Union fell for the first time this year, and it was the first time in March since 2014 that sales had fallen for the first time. Last month, the EU passenger vehicle market registered a year-on-year decline of 5.3% to 1,792,599 units. However, it needs to be pointed out that sales volume in March 2017 is the best record for the monthly sales volume in March.

From a regional perspective, the growth of some countries has slowed down, especially in the United Kingdom. Last month, UK sales fell by 15.7% year-on-year, with Italy and Germany showing 5.8% and 3.4% year-on-year declines respectively, but France (up 2.2% year-on-year) and Spain (up 2.1% year-on-year) still achieved growth.

Despite the decline in sales during the month of March, the accumulative volume of passenger car registrations in the EU market in the first three months of this year increased slightly by 0.7% year-on-year to 4,171,628 units. Among them, Spain (up 10.5% year-on-year), Germany (up 4% year-on-year) and France (up 2.9% year-on-year), while Italy (down 1.5% year-on-year) and the United Kingdom (down 12.4% year-on-year) have fallen.

From the brand point of view, Nissan, Ford and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) in March EU sales have declined to varying degrees. Volkswagen Group's brands Audi and Porsche had a drop of 9.3% and 11.2%, respectively, while Volkswagen Brands, Skoda and SEAT achieved growth.

In March, Peugeot Citroën (PSA)’s Peugeot brand’s European Union sales achieved a 1.4% year-on-year increase, while Citroen’s sales saw a 3.7% decline. Sales of Opel/Vauxhall, which was newly acquired by PSA, slipped to 109,733 in March from 130,462 last year.

Last month, Toyota's EU sales fell 6.3%, while Kia and Hyundai's sales rose 4.5% and 3.3% respectively. The Mercedes-Benz brand's EU sales fell 1.8% in March, and the BMW brand saw a larger drop of 6.6%.