ACEA, the European Association of Car Manufacturers, has released deep red figures on car sales in the European Union. Last year, almost a quarter fewer new passenger cars were registered in the European Union than in 2019.
In December last year, 1,031,070 new passenger cars were registered in the European Union, 3.3 percent less than in the same month in 2019. Although the percentage sales decline is relatively small, it brings total annual sales in the European Union to 9,942,509 million pcs. A huge number, but some 3 million fewer than the 13,028,948 cars registered in 2019. Last year, 23.7 percent fewer new passenger cars were registered in the European Union than in 2019. Never before has the percentage drop in sales figures in the European Union been so great. The explanation is – how could it be otherwise – in the measures to contain the corona virus. Each EU country recorded a significant drop in sales behind its name, with Spain (-32.3 percent), Italy (-27.9 percent) and France (-25.5 percent) as negative outliers. In the Netherlands, the number of registered new passenger cars dropped by more than 20 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
Of course, car manufacturers in the European Union also suffered from the slump in sales. Last year, the Volkswagen Group sold 21.6 percent fewer new passenger cars in the EU with 2,547,519 units. Groupe PSA saw its sales decline by 29.3 percent to 1,511,594 units, Groupe Renault by 25.6 percent to 1,145,871 units. Hyundai Motor Group experienced a 18.4 percent drop in sales in the EU (to 700,345 units) last year, and FCA Automobiles recorded a 25.5 percent decline in sales, ending up with some 660,000 new cars sold. BMW Group (648,748) and Toyota Group (565,211) were still relatively softly hit with sales declines of 16 and 12.8 percent respectively. Daimler saw its sales in the European Union decline by 22.4 percent to 626,836 units, Ford by no less than 30.6 percent to less than 500,000 units. Volvo (222,206 cars), Nissan (209,177 cars), Mazda (118,904 cars) and Mitsubishi (86,521 cars) recorded sales declines of 15.9 percent, 27.7 percent, 42.5 percent and 28.7 percent successively. Jaguar Land Rover and Ford were also hit hard with sales declines of 33.6 and 30.8 percent.