European car sales are also hit in February. In Spain, Italy, Germany and France, significantly fewer cars were registered last month than in the same month last year. However, forecasts for the rest of the year are still positive.
The fact that sales are still in the negative is mainly due to measures surrounding the corona virus. The closure of showrooms in particular contributes to this. In Germany, the number of new car registrations fell to 194,349 units, 19 percent less than in February 2020. According to importers association VDIK, this is the worst February month since 2007. For EVs it was a good month in Germany, because registrations went by 124 percent up to 18,278 copies. France and Spain were hit harder in February with sales declines of 21 and 38 percent respectively compared to the same month in 2020. In France, 132,637 new cars were registered, in Spain the number was 58,279. In January, sales in France fell by 6 percent, while Spain recorded a much higher drop of 51 percent in that month.
In Italy, the number of new car registrations fell to 142,998 units in February, 12 percent less than in the same month in 2020. Italy also performed better in percentage terms last month than in January. Compared to the above countries, the Dutch car market is not performing very well. No less than 26.3 percent fewer new passenger cars were registered in February than in the same month last year. In total, 21,862 new passenger cars have been registered. The Bovag and the RAI Association, among others, expect total sales to pick up again this year, but this of course depends on the further course of the corona crisis. In their annual financial reports for 2021, car manufacturers have also massively expressed the expectation that the market will pick up again this year. However, with the coronavirus and the global shortage of microchips, it looks like they still have to overcome some bumps to do so.