Renault leads marginal European car sales recovery

Renault, Japanese partner Nissan, and rival manufacturer Fiat Chrysler led European car sales higher in May, according to industry data published yesterday, but the overall pace of the market recovery slowed.

Registrations rose 1.4%, year-on-year, to 1.15m cars last month, the Brussels-based Association of European Carmakers said, well short of the market’s 8.1% expansion in the first quarter of the year.

May sales marked the “lowest percentage increase since the beginning of this period of consecutive growth”, the association said. The weaker gain also reflected the timing of holidays that left fewer selling days than in May 2014.