Market growth in many Western European countries

The demand for passenger cars registered another gain in the past month in many foreign markets. Sales climbed especially in Asia and South America, but the USA also posted a clear gain.

The new car market in Western Europe, which was still profiting from the various scrapping premium incentive/scrapping premium programmes in the last months, registered the first sales drop in ten months. At 1.1 million vehicles, the number of new car registrations was 6 percent less than those of a year ago. However in April, 2009, because of the scrapping premium incentive/scrapping premium programme, the passenger car new registrations in Germany had risen by almost 20 percent, while Western Europe as a whole registered a drop of 11 percent. The comparison with the figures from the previous year is therefore skewed.

In April there was a rise in the number of registrations in the largest Western European markets outside Germany. For instance in Great Britain the passenger car sales in the past month increased by 11 percent and in Spain by 39 percent. The French market also passed the April mark of a year ago by +2 percent. However in Italy, according to expectations, the passenger car demand dropped by 16 percent after the expiration of the scrapping premium  incentive/scrapping premium. Since the beginning of the year more than 4.7 million passenger cars, or +7 percent, were sold in Western Europe.

In the new EU countries the sales of passenger cars in April were about one fifth the level of a year ago, raising questions about a real recovery there. In the first four months of the current year about 238,300 new passenger cars were registered in the new EU countries, about 19 percent less than in the same period in 2009.

In April the Russian passenger car business posted a gain of one fifth to 163,300 unit sales. The purchase of new vehicles is being supported by a scrapping premium incentive/scrapping premium since the beginning of March, if the new vehicle is a Russian brand. The revival of demand has led to a dramatic turnaround in the drop in sales of the previous year. Although the sales in the first quarter of 2010 were almost a one fourth below the level of a year ago, the decline through the month of April was only 13 percent.

The sales of light vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) in the USA increased in April by one fifth. The advancing US economic recovery has led to a renewed demand for automobiles. Including the month of April, more than 3.5 million vehicles were sold, or +17 percent. With an increase of 19 % in the same period, the sales of German brands increased more than the overall market, thereby advancing the market share of German manufacturers to 7.6 percent.

The upward trend in sales of light vehicles was also maintained in Brazil. In April in the overall South American market 17 percent, more vehicles were sold than in the same month a year ago. The light vehicles market in Brazil increased by more than one million units since the beginning of the year. In neighbouring Argentina last month sales of light vehicles in creased by a little less than one fourth, representing an annual gain of more than 40 percent, which however is in part to be seen in comparison with the low level of a year ago.

In China the sales of passenger cars (including SUV’s and MPV’s) in the past month increased by 36 percent. The Chinese market was thereby able to maintain the rate of growth of the previous months, but in spite of the Chinese government stimulus programmes   the passenger car demand was somewhat more restrained than a year ago. Including April the passenger car sales in China increased by almost two thirds to just under 3.7 million units, thereby surpassing the previous volume of the US market by about 160,000 units.

The positive trend in sales also continued in India. With April sales of 182,200 units in the Indian market, about one third more passenger cars were sold than in the previous year. Since the beginning of the year the new car business posted a gain of a little less than 31 percent.

Source: Transport Weekly