Kia big riser
The European car market showed no signs of recovery in June. This is evident from figures released by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) industry association. In June, 15.4 percent fewer cars were sold than a year earlier. Over the past six months, the difference compared to 2021 is a minus of 14 percent.
It is now becoming a familiar tune with European car sales. Sales figures have not been good in recent months and the month of June does not exactly contribute positively to the half-year figure either. In the European Union, 886,510 new passenger cars were registered in June. That in itself is quite a good number, were it not for the fact that according to ACEA this was the worst June month since 1996. Last year, in the same month 1,047,532 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union. The four largest markets contributed to this decline, with Germany (-18.1 percent) leading the way. Behind this are Italy (-15 percent), France (-14.2 percent) and Spain (-7.8 percent). In the Netherlands, the red figure was 8.9 percent.
Adding the June figure, the total number of newly registered passenger cars in the past six months comes to 4,608,205 units. That is exactly 14 percent less than in the same period in 2021, when 5,361,371 new passenger cars were still registered in Europe. Nearly all countries achieved a minus in the past six months, with the percentage decrease of 5.6 percent in the Netherlands not too bad compared to, for example, Germany (-11 percent), France (-16.3 percent), Italy (- 22.7 percent) and Belgium (-15.9 percent). The Eastern European countries are doing relatively well again. In Bulgaria (+13.3 percent), Romania (+23.1 percent) and Latvia (+6 percent), more cars were sold in the past six months than last year.
Kia scores well
Given the above figures, it is of course inevitable that the car brands are also a valley of red tears. In June, Volvo was relatively hardest hit in the European Union with sales falling 45.7 percent (from 22,180 to 12,041 cars) compared to the same month in 2021. Mazda did with a negative figure of 42.7 percent (from 13,159 to 7,536 cars) in June not much better. The Volkswagen Group also had a hard time with sales of 22.3 percent in June, but still sold the most cars of all car manufacturers in the European Union with 215,390 units. Stellantis managed to limit the damage to a minus of 17 percent and sold 190,863 cars, followed by Groupe Renault with 121,681 units (-0.04 percent).
Are there still risers in June? Yes, Kia sold 2.2 percent more cars than June last year (41,254 units) and Mercedes-Benz also comes in at a plus of 7.5 percent (47,857 units). Nissan (+2.1 percent) and Land Rover (+5.7 percent) also recorded a plus. For Jaguar Land Rover it is only a bit of a shame that Jaguar throws a spanner in the works with a minus of 42.5 percent.
Over the past six months, the Volkswagen Group led the way with 1,137,200 cars sold (-18.5 percent), with Stellantis in second place thanks to 958,688 new registrations (-22.5 percent). Groupe Renault follows in third place with 487,692 units (-8.1 percent). In the European top five, the Hyundai Group is the only climber with a plus of 9 percent to 441,471 cars sold, with Kia surpassing Hyundai with 228,842 against 212,629 copies. Toyota follows in fifth place with 330,568 cars sold (-1.6 percent), surpassing the Japanese BMW (312,117 new registrations) in Europe.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl