European car registrations fell sharply in June, resuming a downward spiral this year that has seen profit warnings at German manufacturer Daimler and a quarterly division loss at rival BMW.

Over the first nine months of 2017, demand for passenger cars remained positive in the EU and EFTA

European car sales in March rose briskly as Fiat Chrysler and Renault took advantage of a solid economy to lure more buyers.

European car sales rose to a nine-year high in 2016, with French company Renault taking advantage of recovering demand and Volkswagen’s tarnished reputation to leap to second place from third in th e region.

Volkswagen lost market share in Europe for the sixth month in a row, in February, as the German carmaker’s diesel-emissions scandal pushed buyers to the likes of Fiat-Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and Ford.

Leaked documents from Europe’s car industry suggest it got valuable information from the European Commission that allowed it to weaken emission tests despite the thousands of premature deaths caused by emissions.

Britain and three other countries have joined calls for mandatory EU limits on the amount of CO2 pumped out by trucks, which account for 30% of road transport emissions but only a small fraction of vehicles on the road.

All cars and light vans in Europe will have to be fitted with automatic emergency calling devices from April 2018 under new rules approved by European Union lawmakers, aimed at cutting road deaths by 10% a year.

In 2014, European car sales rose for the first time in seven years as buyers replaced aging vehicles with low-cost ones. The market’s revival from a two-decade low is set to continue in 2015.

European car sales rose for the 12th consecutive month, as price cuts by manufacturers and demand for compact models from Ford and Volkswagen led to the longest stretch of growth on record.

EUROPEAN car sales rose 4.3% in May, the ninth consecutive monthly gain, as the recovery in consumer confidence continues on the back of new models from Renault and Volkswagen.

Ford has said the size of its manufacturing base in Europe will be determined by how long the market remains subdued.

BMW will build its next generation of Minis in Britain in a move that will help safeguard more than 5,000 jobs, the company said today.

THE COST of a new car could increase by €5,000, warn car manufacturers, which have been given a six-year deadline to produce cleaner vehicles that emit less carbon dioxide.