Sales of new passenger cars in the European Union are also well above the level of the same month a year earlier in May. According to the European trade association ACEA, there was an annual sales increase of more than 53 percent.
In May this year, nearly 892,000 new cars were registered in the EU. However, the comparison with May last year is flawed because of the many corona measures that were in place at the time that hindered the sale of cars. For example, showrooms were closed and consumers chose to postpone major purchases due to the uncertain situation. The fact that the crisis is still having an impact on sales becomes clear when you compare the figures for this year with May 2019. Two years ago, 1.2 million new passenger cars were sold within the EU, more than 34 percent more than this year.
In the first five months of the year, annual sales increased by nearly 30 percent. However, here too the corona impact causes a skewed comparison. According to ACEA, 25,601 new passenger cars were registered in the Netherlands in May. That represented a year-on-year increase of 72.5%. In the first five months of the year, there was a small minus in the Netherlands, mainly as a result of the corona measures that were still in place at the beginning of the year.
The Volkswagen Group took the largest sales share in the EU in May, with 28.2 percent. It sold more than 251,000 cars. Stellantis was in second place, with a market share of 22.4 percent and just under 200,000 cars sold. Renault Group (9.5 percent, 84,996 cars), Hyundai Group (8 percent, 71,426 cars) and BMW Group (6.8 percent, 60,973 cars) round out the top 5. Volkswagen, Peugeot and Renault were – in that order – the best-selling brands.