At the beginning of the year, the car market in the European Union collapsed more than ever before due to the restrictions on combating the corona pandemic. Car sales fell in January by 24.0 percent to around 726,491 vehicles, as the manufacturers' association ACEA announced in Brussels on Wednesday. That is the lowest value since data collection began. In addition to the corona crisis, it also contributed to the fact that the month had one less working day this year.
Among the major markets, Spain reported a 51.5 percent drop in sales in January, followed by Europe's largest car market Germany (minus 31.1 percent) and Italy (minus 14.0 percent). In Austria, the decline was quite sharp at minus 38.4 percent. In France, sales fell by just under six percent, while Sweden even recorded an increase of 22.5 percent. According to ACEA, this is because new registrations in Sweden were particularly low a year ago due to a tax increase.
The German car companies Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW all posted double-digit declines, of which Volkswagen was hit hardest (minus 26.8 percent as a group, minus 30.1 percent for the VW brand). Opel from the Franco-Italian Stellantis group (Peugeot, Fiat) came to a minus of 32.4 percent.
The growth dynamics of electrified new vehicles decreased significantly in January, the consulting firm EY noted today. In January 2021, almost every eighth newly registered car in the top 5 markets was either an electric car or a plug-in hybrid; the combined market share was 12.8 percent. In December 2020, every fifth new car was an electric car or plug-in hybrid (market share 19.9 percent). In Austria, the market share of electrified new cars fell from 19.1 to 16.4 percent.
“The recently relatively low number of registrations for electrified cars can be traced back to the massive electric boom in December,” said EY Austria expert Gerhard Schwartz. The car companies were therefore anxious to get the largest possible number of electric cars and plug-in hybrids registered in December in order to meet the emissions targets for 2020 and avoid fines. Schwartz expects the electrical segment to grow significantly more strongly again in the coming months.
