In September, passenger car registration in the EU increased by 9.6% YoY, totaling 787,870 units. Meanwhile, in January – September 2022 EU demand for new cars decreased 9.9% YoY. In Croatia in the mentioned period passenger car registration reported a slightly lower decrease of 6.9% YoY, while only in September an increase of 22.6% YoY was noted.

In September 2022, passenger car registration in the EU increased by 9.6% YoY, totaling 787,870 units. The biggest increase reported in the EU by far was in Germany, Spain, France and Italy, where the reported increase amounted to 27.8k units, 7.6k units, 7.3k units and 5.7k units, respectively, representing 14.1%, 12.7%, 5.5% and 5.4% YoY increase. Furthermore, no major regions reported a decrease in new passenger car registrations.

When observing January – September 2022, the situation is relatively different – EU demand for new cars decreased by 9.9% YoY, reaching 6.7m units registered in total. When observing the whole period, Italy, as the major market, reported the highest decrease of 16.3% YoY with total car registration amounting to 976.1k units (decreasing by 189.6k units). This decrease was further amplified by a decrease in another two major markets, Germany and France. Germany reported a decrease of 7.4% YoY and France reported a decrease of 11.8%, which is a decrease of 149.7k and 148.3k units of cars registered, respectively. Spain, which is also considered a major market, also reported a decrease of 7.4% 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 6.9% YoY, amounting to 34.6k units registered. Looking at data only for September, Croatia reported an increase of 22.6% YoY, amounting to 3.4k units registered. Slovenia reported a similar situation – when observing the whole period, Slovenia reported a decrease of 14.7% YoY, amounting to 36.8k 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.