In April, passenger car registration in the EU decreased by 20.6% YoY, totalling 684,506 units as expected. Outlook is threatened by the lack of electric cabling component. Meanwhile, in January – April 2022 EU demand for new cars decreased 14.4% YoY. In Croatia in the mentioned period passenger car registration reported a slightly higher decrease of 5% YoY, while in April only a slight 2.7% YoY increase was noted to partially offset the situation. Furthermore, the outlook doesn’t look too optimistic – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disturbed the production of harnesses in Ukraine, used for holding together electric cabling inside of a car.
In April 2022, passenger car registration in the EU decreased by 20.6% YoY, totaling 684,506 units. The biggest decrease reported in the EU by far was in Germany, Italy and France, where the reported decrease amounted to 49k units, 48k units and 32k units, respectively, representing 21.5%, 33% and 22.6% YoY decrease. Furthermore, no major regions reported an increase in new passenger car registrations.
When observing January – April 2022, the situation is quite similar – EU demand for new cars decreased by 14.4% YoY, reaching 2.9m units registered in total. When observing the whole period, Germany, as the major market, reported a decrease of 9% YoY with total car registration amounting to 474k units. This decrease was further amplified by a decrease in another two major markets, Italy and France. Italy reported a decrease of 26.5% YoY and France reported a decrease of 18.6%, which is a decrease of 157k and 108k units of cars registered, respectively. Spain, which is also considered a major market, also reported a decrease of 11.8% YoY in the mentioned period.
Looking at the region, when observing the whole period since the beginning of the year, Croatia reported a decrease of 5% YoY, amounting to 13.9k units registered. Looking at data only for April, Croatia reported a slight increase of 2.7% YoY, amounting to 4.3k units registered. Slovenia reported a similar situation – when observing the whole period, Slovenia reported a decrease of 19% YoY, amounting to 16.7k units of the car registered.
Also, the outlook is still threatened by the lack of harnesses, which is used to hold together electric cabling inside of a car, and produced mostly in Ukraine – which due to obvious reasons, does not look optimistic. Some suppliers in Ukraine have begun restarting operations, according to car manufacturers. Almost all plants used in production currently working are unable to produce at the full rate of capacity.
