In May, passenger car registration in the EU decreased by 11.2% YoY, totaling 791,546 units as expected. Meanwhile, in January – May 2022 EU demand for new cars decreased 13.7% YoY. Outlook is threatened by the lack of electric cabling components. In Croatia in the mentioned period passenger car registration reported a slightly lower decrease of 6% YoY, while in May only a decrease of 9.2% YoY increase was noted. 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 May 2022, passenger car registration in the EU decreased by 11.2% YoY, totaling 791,546 units. The biggest decrease reported in the EU by far was in Germany, Italy and France, where the reported decrease amounted to 23.4k units, 41.6k units and 14.2k units, respectively, representing 10.2%, 15.1% and 10.1% YoY decrease. Furthermore, no major regions reported an increase in new passenger car registrations.
When observing January – May 2022, the situation is quite similar – EU demand for new cars decreased by 13.7% YoY, reaching 3.7m units registered in total. When observing the whole period, Italy, as the major market, reported the highest decrease of 24.3% YoY with total car registration amounting to 557k units. This decrease was further amplified by a decrease in another two major markets, France and Germany. France reported a decrease of 16.9% YoY and France reported a decrease of 9.3%, which is a decrease of 122k and 103k units of cars registered, respectively. Spain, which is also considered a major market, also reported a decrease of 11.5% 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 6% YoY, amounting to 18k units registered. Looking at data only for May, Croatia reported a decrease of 9.2% YoY, amounting to 4k units registered. Slovenia reported a similar situation – when observing the whole period, Slovenia reported a decrease of 17% YoY, amounting to 21.5k 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.
