European registrations grew again in February with nearly all major markets posting domestic growth in sales.
New figures released by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) show that across the continent, sales increased during the second month of the year by 4.3%, with 1,125,397 units being exchanged.
Of the big five countries, Spain recorded the biggest growth with a 13% rise in vehicle registrations, followed by Germany with 7.4%, and France with 4.3%. These figures were enough to counter a drop in the market in Italy, down 1.4%, and the UK, where sales fell for an eleventh consecutive month with a decline of 2.8%.
For the year-to-date, the European market is up 5.8% compared to the first two months of 2017. However, momentum is starting to slow in some markets, especially the UK which is down 5.1%, and Italy, which is only up 1%. Yet Spain is leading the way with a registrations rise of 16.4% year-to-date, with Germany up 9.5% and France seeing increases of 3.4% during the first two months of 2018.
Graph courtesy of ACEA
Manufacturers
Amongst carmakers, Volkswagen Group increased its sales by 9.4% across Europe in February, with the core brand showing sales growth of 9.1% with 112,484 units being shipped. PSA Group grew its sales by 67.6% in the second month of the year, but this includes Opel and Vauxhall figures which were not part of the company’s numbers at this time last year. As PSA Group’s acquisition of Opel was completed last August, it will take until month eight of 2018 for this anomaly to disappear.
BMW Group posted a 0.9% drop in sales during February. However, it is still recording growth year-to-date of 2.1%. Nissan also lost 7% compared to the second month of 2017, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has dropped 4.3% in February and is 1.6% down across all its brands year-to-date.
