Passenger Car Registrations in the EU up 11.2% YoY in 8M 2021

If we were to compare the Croatian market to the pre-Covid times (2019), one can observe that passenger car registrations in the first 8 months of 2021 are still down by 28%, while looking solely at August we see a 17% drop.

European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has recently published eight months data for new passenger car registrations in the EU. During the eight months of 2021, EU demand for new cars grew by 11.2% YoY to reach little more than 6.8m units registered in total. However, note that by looking at H1 2021, results were up 25.2% YoY. Meanwhile, in both July and August, the demand for new cars dropped by 23.2% and 19.1%, respectively.

Most of the 27 markets in the region posted similar results, with significant drops in both July and August, while eight month results remained positive for most of the markets. Markets that reported drop in demand over the first eight months of 2021 are Belgium and Netherlands, by -3.5% and -3.4%, respectively. Major EU markets in eight month period performed as followed: Italy (+30.9%), Spain (+12.1%), France (+12.8%) and Germany (+2.5%).

By far the largest 8 month increase in the EU was realised in Greece (+41.9% YoY), followed by Croatia and Estonia with +36.7% and +33.0% respectively. On the other hand, in August car registrations across the European Union dropped by -19.1%. Portugal and Lithuania saw the biggest contraction in August, of -35.8% and -30.2%, respectively. During the month of August, the largest car markets posted double-digit declines: Spain (-28.9%), Italy (-27.3%), Germany (-23.0%) and France (-15.0%).

Turning our attention to the Russian market, over the first eight months of 2021 the market recorded 1 067 890 cars sold. Note that this represents an increase of 21.3% YoY. In August 2021 car sales decreased by -17% YoY, according to the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.