European car sales in the plus for the first time in 2022

Despite the initially positive reports from the same ACEA, it will not succeed this year to pull the European sales figures from the declining line. At least that was true until July, when sales fell for the seventh time at -10.4 percent in 2022. August actually ends 4.4 percent in the plus, but in absolute numbers that is no reason for frenzy. The summer month was not a great one last year either and can only be called a minor success if we compare it with August 2021. If we look within 2022, it is striking that so few cars have been sold as last month. With 650,305 units, the eighth month of 2022 also lags far behind August months of the years before the corona pandemic.

Volkswagen and Stellantis are by far the largest car suppliers in Europe and are also among the companies with the largest increase in August. Mercedes-Benz and Ford also did relatively good business in August 2022. ACEA notes that all major European markets are showing some growth relative to 2021. The Netherlands is not one of those ‘key markets’, but we also have 9.2 percent more cars registered. In the first eight months of 2022, however, our sales fell by 5.6 percent. Not the best, but better than the 11.9% that applies for the entire European Union. If we include Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, the total decrease comes to 13.7 percent. The United Kingdom is doing slightly less badly, pulling the average for the whole of Europe to -11.8 percent. ACEA still points to the (chip) shortages as the biggest drag on car sales.