European car sales show signs of recovery in July

According to the latest new car sales analysis from intelligence provider JATO Dynamics, Europe’s new car market experienced a 4.9% increase in sales in July, with 48,202 more new cars sold in July 2013 compared to July 2012. Overall, the market remains behind 2012 performance, down by 5.2% year-to-date.

Out of the ‘Big Five’ markets, Italy was the only country to experience a decrease in sales in July, with a drop of 1.8%. While the other ‘Big Five’ markets were up for the month, Great Britain was the only market to post an increase for year-to-date figures; 124,287 more new cars have been sold in Great Britain than during the same period in 2012, representing a 10.3% increase.

France, Germany and Italy, however, all remain down by a considerable amount on 2012. Year-to-date, France is down 9.7%, Germany 6.7% and Italy 9.3% on the same period in 2012. Combined, these three countries have sold 328,818 fewer cars than in 2012 (the European year-to-date total is down by 412,335 units).

Making a significant improvement in July was Spain, which registered 10,763 more new cars in July 2013 than in July 2012. The 16.5% increase is welcome news and Spain is now just 1.3% down year-to-date 2013 compared to 2012.

Following last month, Ireland’s first ever mid-year number plate change has had the expected result, with sales increasing 163.2% over July 2012.

Country	Jul_13	Jul_12	% Change Jul	Jul YtD_13	Jul YtD_12	% Change YtD
Austria	28,543	28,268	+1.0%	199,747	215,226	-7.2%
Belgium	34,879	36,701	-5.0%	324,752	321,817	+0.9%
Croatia	3,180	2,682	+18.6%	18,563	22,940	-19.1%
Cyprus*	570	879	-35.2%	3,721	6,672	-44.2%
Czech Republic*	10,999	11,158	-1.4%	91,814	105,370	-12.9%
Denmark	14,306	16,709	-14.4%	106,216	100,919	+5.2%
Estonia	1,811	1,794	+0.9%	12,159	12,125	+0.3%
Finland	8,452	6,443	+31.2%	64,912	73,306	-11.5%
France	150,218	148,924	+0.9%	1,081,694	1,197,917	-9.7%
Germany	253,146	247,860	+2.1%	1,755,776	1,882,261	-6.7%
Great Britain	162,228	143,884	+12.7%	1,325,851	1,201,564	+10.3%
Greece	6,459	5,743	+12.5%	36,794	38,066	-3.3%
Hungary	5,054	4,521	+11.8%	32,381	32,521	-0.4%
Iceland*	675	574	+17.6%	5,479	5,428	+0.9%
Ireland	11,640	4,422	+163.2%	64,870	71,069	-8.7%
Italy	108,068	110,072	-1.8%	842,807	928,917	-9.3%
Latvia	934	895	+4.4%	6,071	6,357	-4.5%
Lithuania	1,071	1,051	+1.9%	7,085	7,245	-2.2%
Luxembourg	3,905	4,195	-6.9%	30,314	32,851	-7.7%
Norway	11,633	12,133	-4.1%	83,358	82,394	+1.2%
Poland	24,836	20,820	+19.3%	172,419	169,490	+1.7%
Portugal*	11,060	9,265	+19.4%	66,026	62,677	+5.3%
Romania	7,105	5,603	+26.8%	36,067	41,551	-13.2%
Serbia*	1,711	1,879	-8.9%	12,303	13,736	-10.4%
Slovakia	5,700	5,977	-4.6%	37,383	39,781	-6.0%
Slovenia	4,229	4,105	+3.0%	32,458	32,432	+0.1%
Spain	75,946	65,183	+16.5%	464,900	470,964	-1.3%
Sweden	18,161	18,076	+0.5%	147,055	160,709	-8.5%
Switzerland	25,715	24,151	+6.5%	181,004	201,337	-10.1%
The Netherlands	30,852	30,917	-0.2%	243,582	362,254	-32.8%
Grand Total	1,023,086	974,884	+4.9%	7,487,561	7,899,896	-5.2%

Volkswagen led the top 10 manufacturers table this month, despite recording the largest fall in sales in the top 10 for 2013 year-to-date. Volkswagen sales are down 6.9% (69,872 units) so far this year compared to the same period in 2012.

The largest year-to-date percentage decrease however was reported by Citroen, down by 14.1% (62,219 units) compared to the same period in 2012 and by 2.7% (1,445 units) versus July 2012.

Of the top 10 manufacturers, BMW, Ford and Mercedes all posted increases of over 10% in monthly sales compared to 2012. Ford were up 10.4%, BMW 13.2%, and Mercedes 15.0%. Within the top 10, only Mercedes posted increases for both monthly and year-to-date figures; up by 3.7% (13,341 units) year-to-date.

Make	Jul_13	Jul_12	% Change Jul	Jul YtD_13	Jul YtD_12	% Change YtD
VOLKSWAGEN	130,554	133,745	-2.4%	940,781	1,010,653	-6.9%
FORD	78,126	70,759	+10.4%	566,450	610,696	-7.2%
OPEL/VAUXHALL	66,990	62,380	+7.4%	504,004	532,546	-5.4%
RENAULT	64,358	62,211	+3.5%	476,929	524,394	-9.1%
PEUGEOT	62,957	63,210	-0.4%	456,665	507,176	-10.0%
AUDI	59,011	59,288	-0.5%	423,574	438,032	-3.3%
CITROEN	52,676	54,121	-2.7%	378,022	440,241	-14.1%
MERCEDES	52,398	45,570	+15.0%	375,267	361,926	+3.7%
BMW	49,118	43,400	+13.2%	376,819	380,741	-1.0%
FIAT	47,476	46,389	+2.3%	366,332	374,126	-2.1%