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European Car Market Revs Up in Summer

The European car market booked its best-ever August in 10 years this year, with new registrations jumping by 5.6 percent last month, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association ACEA said on Thursday.

A total of 865,000 new cars were registered on Europe's roads in August, ACEA calculated in figures released as the industry's biggest showcase in Europe, the IAA car show, opens its doors to the general public in Frankfurt.

The region's major markets of Italy and Spain booked the strongest increases -- of 15.8 percent and 13 percent respectively. 

France and Germany came next, clocking up growth in new registrations of 8.4 percent and 3.5 percent.

But demand for cars in Britain, which is negotiating to leave the bloc, skidded 6.4 percent lower, ACEA said.

Taking the first eight months as a whole, "demand for passenger cars maintained momentum throughout Europe," the organisation continued. 

"With more than 10 million new vehicles registered across the EU, registrations went up by 4.5 percent compared to the same period last year."

Again, while Italy, Spain, France and Germany all saw demand increase across the January-August period, Britain "registered a slight decline" of 2.4 percent.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel was scheduled to open the IAA, ACEA calculated that German auto giant VW remains Europe's biggest carmaker, commanding 23.6 percent of the market over the January-August period. 

But it nevertheless saw its market share eroded slightly as it continues to battle the so-called "Dieselgate" scandal in which it admitted to installing emissions-cheating software into 11 million diesel engines worldwide. 

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, the region's number two, saw its market share increase by 0.4 percentage point to 10.6 percent as it integrated Opel and Vauxhall, the German and British makers it recently acquired from General Motors, ACEA said.

Source: Agence France Presse


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