Spain is the only market in Europe that registers a drop in car sales until June

There are no signs of ‘green shoots’ in the Spanish automotive sector. In the first quarter, Spain was the only market in Europe that registered a collapse in car sales with a drop in passenger car and SUV registrations of more than 34% compared to the same period in 2019 to 456,833 units, according to figures from manufacturers (Anfac), dealers (Faconauto) and vendors (Ganvam) associations.

Figures that are far from those registered by the rest of European markets in the first quarter of the year and that reflect a clear recovery in car sales thanks to the support that other governments have given to the sector with the maintenance of aid that were launched by the impact of the coronavirus crisis and the neutralization of the rise in registration tax orchestrated by the European Commission (EC) -which the Government of Pedro Sánchez will suppress for only six months-.

In the month of June, expectations have not improved as car sales registered a 25.8% plunge compared to the levels prior to the impact of the coronavirus crisis in the automotive sector -June 2019-. In the sixth month of the year they were sold in the national market 96,785 automobiles despite being a month in which dealers increase their traffic significantly due to the arrival of summer.

If we compare it with 2020, it is still the worst market in Europe with only an increase of 17% compared to the year of the pandemic, ahead of France.

Italy shoots up its sales in 2021

The italian market of passenger cars and SUVs accumulates sales of 884,750 units in the first half of this year, which represents a growth of 51.4% compared to the 584,237 units delivered between January and June 2020, when the coronavirus crisis had already impacted in Europe, according to data from the national vehicle archive of Italy.

In the last month, Italy has slowed its escalation driven by the Government’s support measures to reactivate demand after the impact of the coronavirus crisis in the sector. Only last month 149,438 vehicles were sold in Italy, which represents a growth of 12.6% if the 132,691 cars sold in June of the previous year are taken into account. By brands, Fiat it remains the most ‘popular’ car company in the transalpine market, having registered 138,713 units so far this year.

For its part, the registrations of passenger cars and SUVs in UK stood at 909,973 units in the first half of this year, representing a growth of 39.2% compared to the same period in 2020, according to data published by the British employers SMMT.

Close to a million units

Sales of passenger cars and SUVs in France stood at 199,509 units in June, which is 14.7% less than the 233,814 cars that were registered in the same month of 2020. According to data from the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA), so far this year 922,766 units were delivered to the French market, representing an increase of 29% compared to the same period in 2020, when the coronavirus crisis had already impacted Europe.

Meanwhile, car sales in Germany have registered a significant slowdown so far this year with a drop of 14.1% to 1,390,889 registrations according to data from the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), since the Government of Angela Merkel has only made the support measures available to electric vehicles.