European car sales up 4.3%
Registrations increased to 1.13m vehicles from 1.09m a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said. Sales in the first five months of 2014 were up 6.6% to 5.62m cars.
European Central Bank president Mario Draghi signalled last month that unprecedented monetary policy measures were coming in June to encourage lending in the eurozone to combat sluggish economic growth. Among the top 10 car sellers in Europe, registrations at third-ranked Renault jumped the most in May, at 18%, with gains of 9.5% at market leader Volkswagen and 4.2% at second-place PSA Peugeot Citroen.
“It’s a modest recovery from low levels of overall demand,” Marc-Rene Tonn, an analyst with M.M. Warburg in Hamburg. “It’s the second-worst May since 2003.”
The ACEA compiles figures from the 28-country European Union, excluding Malta, as well as numbers from Switzerland, Norway and Iceland. The stretch of gains is the longest since a 10-month period of sales growth that ended in March 2010.
New car sales in Ireland in May were up 6% on the same period last year. So far this year 64,031 new cars have been sold in Ireland, up 12,481 on 2013.
Registrations in Germany, Europe’s largest market at about one-quarter of deliveries, rose 5.2% in May, in part thanks to an extra selling day. Sales fell 3.8% in Italy, the only decline among Europe’s five biggest car markets.
“If you look at places like Spain, where sales gained 17%, it’s clear there’s a degree of pent-up demand, but how sustainable this is remains to be seen,” Tonn said.
The main findings show:
- Sales surged 24% last month at Renault’s low-cost Dacia division, which has revamped its Duster sport-utility vehicle and Sandero hatchback. The Renault namesake brand, bolstered by the Captur crossover, sold 16% more cars.
- Sales jumped 23% at Volkswagen’s Skoda marque, helped by a new version of the Octavia small car, and 22% at the Seat nameplate, which added a station-wagon variant to its Leon compact vehicle line at the end of 2013. Registrations at Audi rose by 4.8%.
- Demand at Peugeot, propelled by the 2008 compact SUV and 308 hatchback, rose 4.8% in May, and the Citroen nameplate’s registrations increased 3.5%.
- Combined sales at Opel and Vauxhall rose 6.2% last month, helped by the Mokka compact SUV and Corsa small car.
Europe’s car market is recovering from a two-decade low reached in 2013. Industry executives are predicting growth in regional auto demand of 2-3% this year. A recovery in the region and Chinese market expansion will help carmakers meet their goals this year, analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a report this week, citing company comment during an industry conference last week.
Consumer confidence in the eurozine rose in May to the highest since October 2007.
