Car market in the EU collapses in the corona crisis
In April, 76.3 percent fewer new cars were registered in the EU than in the same month last year.
The slump was most pronounced in Italy (minus 97.6 percent) and Spain (minus 96.5 percent), which were particularly hard hit by the Corona crisis.
The European car market collapsed in April due to the coronavirus pandemic. 270,682 new cars were registered in the European Union (EU), which was 76.3 percent less than in the same month last year, as the responsible industry association Acea announced on Tuesday in Brussels. The number of registrations had already decreased in January and February, before falling by more than half in March. The slump in April in the wake of the worsening virus crisis was now much stronger.
Total minus in 2020 is 38.5 percent compared to the same period last year
Among the German manufacturers, the VW group with all its vehicle brands recorded a decline of 72.7 percent in April. At Daimler, the drop was still slightly larger at 78.8 percent, while the drop at BMW was 65.3 percent compared to the same month last year. The French carmaker Renault and PSA each lost around 80 percent, the Italian-American carmaker Fiat-Chrysler even almost 90 percent.
Since the beginning of the year, the drop in new EU registrations has been 38.5 percent, according to the information: a total of 2.75 million cars were registered. In three of the four most important EU markets – Italy, Spain and France – new registrations fell by around half. In Germany, the decline was 31 percent after the first four months.