Europe’s car-sales crash points to worse year than poor 2020

Sales in Europe have fallen in more months than they’ve risen this year

Customers look at the New Volkswagen AG (VW) ID.4 electric automobile in a showroom in Berlin, Germany on Friday, July 16, 2021. Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg

Automakers logged their worst September sales in Europe in more than a quarter-century, putting the industry on course to come up short of last year’s disastrous showing.

New car registrations plummeted 25% to 972,723, the lowest for the month since 1995, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. The lobby group largely attributes the drop to the semiconductor shortage, which worsened when Covid-19 outbreaks idled chip packaging and testing facilities in Southeast Asia.