In May, passenger car registration in the EU increased by 18.5% YoY, totaling 938,950 units. Meanwhile, looking at the first 5 months of 2023, EU registration of new cars increased by 18% YoY overall. In Croatia in the mentioned period, passenger car registration reported a much more pronounced increase of 46.9% YoY.

New passenger car registration by month [2018-2023]

Source: ACEA, InterCapital Research

In May 2023, passenger car registration in the EU increased by 18.5% YoY, totaling 938,950 units. The most significant increase reported in the EU in May was reported in Germany, where the reported increase amounted to 39.8k units, representing a 19.2% YoY increase. Germany is followed by Italy, where a 28k unit increase can be noted (+23.1% YoY). Italy is closely followed by France, which is also considered a major and significant region, noting an increase of 18.7k units (+14.8% YoY). Finally, the last major region within the EU, Spain, also noted a strong growth of 7k units, amounting to 92k units (+8.3% YoY).

When observing the first 5 months of 2023, the situation is pretty similar – EU registration of new cars increased by 18% YoY, reaching 4.4m units registered in total. Overall, EU new car registration saw a strong increase on a YoY basis. However, the previous year was influenced by the semiconductor shortage, which started at the beginning of 2022. Consequently, most EU markets showed strong growth compared to 2022. When observing the whole period, each of the major markets within the EU noted a positive development. Germany reported solid growth (+10.2% YoY), while Spain, Italy and France all noted even more pronounced growth of 26.9%, 26.1% and 16.3%, respectively. Further, a lot of smaller regions also noted a strong double-digit growth.

Looking at the region, when observing the whole period since the beginning of the year, Croatia reported an increase of 46.5% YoY, amounting to 26.3k units registered. Slovenia reported a somewhat worse situation – when observing the first 5 months, the development was less pronounced with 5.5% growth.

Fuel type cars market share [April 2023]

Source: ACEA, InterCapital Research

During May, the most significant change occurred with battery electric cars, where a significant growth in market share by 4.2 p.p. YoY was noted, now amounting to 13.8%. Furthermore, hybrids are now the second-most popular choice for new car buyers. Finally, petrol cars continue to dominate with the largest share of 36.5% (negative market share YoY development).