Sales of new cars in Europe fell significantly in August compared to July. It is also lower compared to last year, although that should come as no surprise.
In August, 769,525 new cars were registered in the European Union. That is a decrease of 18.9 percent compared to the same month last year. This is evident from figures from the European association of car manufacturers ACEA. It is a striking drop after a fairly good month of July. Then only a minus of 5.7 percent was recorded compared to the same month last year. Although August has traditionally been a mediocre month in terms of sales, the rebound of the European market after the lockdowns now seems to be somewhat faltering.
August was also a remarkably bad month in the Netherlands. Where in July an increase of 4 percent was recorded in sales, new car sales in August fell by 21.5 percent compared to August last year. 26,461 new cars received a Dutch registration number last month.
Although after a brief rebound in July (also across the EU) it is now slipping back, it is still nowhere near as bad as earlier this year. European sales fell 55.1 percent in March, followed by -76.3 percent in April, -52.3 percent in May and -22.3 percent in June. Over the year as a whole, this is a decrease of 32 percent so far. A total of 6,123,582 new cars were registered in the EU this year, almost 2.9 million fewer than last year in that period.
Brands
BMW and Volvo are relatively the least hit this year at European level. BMW sees sales to date 20.2 percent lower than last year, Volvo 20.5 percent. Of the largest players in Europe, Fiat Chrysler and PSA Groupe are hit hardest with 38.4 and 38.3 percent respectively, seen over the first eight months. Opel / Vauxhall in particular has a hard time, with a sales decrease of 50.7 percent. However, the biggest drop can be seen at Smart, which has sold no less than 84.6 percent fewer cars this year than last year.