European new car sales see worst year on record

Sales of new cars across Europe dropped for the fourth month in a row, marking the worst year on record, according to the latest data released by industry analyst ACEA.

Demand for new passenger cars dropped by 3.3% to a little over 1 million across the EU for December, although the four major markets had markedly different results. France and Italy both suffered double-digit drops of 14.9% and 11.8% respectively for December alone. 

Read more: British car industry sees biggest sales slump in over half a century

Conversely, Germany posted an increase of 9.9% when compared with December 2019 and Spain reportedly broke even.

ACEA posits the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns had serious effects on the sales of vehicles in the bloc. The data suggests that car sales in the EU alone contracted by 23.7% to 9.9 million units as a direct result of the pandemic.

New car registrations fell by 3 million from 2019 numbers and all 27 bloc markets reported double-digit declines through 2020. The largest in the region were Spain (-32.3%), Italy (-27.9%) and France (-25.5%) with Germany lower figures (-19.1%).

Read more: European electric & hybrids market "almost equal with China", figures show

These mark the lowest figures since records began in 1990, ACEA added.

Leaders players in the European automotive industry have been posting very different results for their 2020 market reports.

Registrations for Volkswagen NV's rose by 8% for December, with all brands showing increases except Audi.

VW reacted quickly to the pandemic, instigating a continent-wide shutdown of services, which may have gone some way to mitigating their losses or allowing them to properly adapt to the pandemic.

Read more: Volkswagen begins European shut down

PSA Group likewise reported an incremental increase of 1.7  across all brands, including Vauxhall, whose NV registrations increased by 19%.

Renault, Fiat Chrysler, Ford and Toyota all suffered heavy losses for 2020 owing to reduced demand and shutdowns during the pandemic.

Demand across the board was significantly higher in the second half of the year owing to a lifting of the initial lockdowns in the early summer, which did much to limit industry losses.

Many governments also began offering subsidies for various markets, particularly EVs, which led to increases in demand during pandemic slumps.

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