New car sales in the European Union suffered their biggest fall in eight months in June as economic uncertainty made consumers wary and some markets suffered from the withdrawal of state-sponsored scrappage schemes. Figures released on Friday by automakers association ACEA showed sales down 8.1 percent on the same month a year before, the biggest drop since a 16.6 percent shrinkage last October as consumers opted to put off big-ticket purchases.
The trend was underscored by German automotive industry association VDA, which said the number of new registrations of German-brand cars in western Europe dropped 8 percent in June on the year before. ACEA's June figure compares with a rise of 7.1 percent in May, at which time the effects of economic recovery seemed to be holding sway, though five-monthly sales were down 0.8 percent and ACEA pointed out sales were still running below pre-crisis levels. In France, where car sales fell 12.6 percent in June, a scrappage scheme ran out in December, though buyers were allowed to register their cars under the scheme until March.
In Spain, which saw a 31.4 percent fall in June sales, subsidies ended last July. ACEA's figures also showed registrations in the first six months of the year were down 2.1 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, with 7.1 million passenger cars registered across the European Union.
French car maker Renault's group sales fell 20.9 percent in June, ACEA said. Over the first six months its European sales were down 10.8 percent, though Renault on Monday reported a 1.9 percent rise in world-wide vehicle sales in the first half, driven by strong demand in emerging markets.
French rival PSA Peugeot Citroen's sales fell 11.9 percent in June, ACEA said, though the company reported a 0.2 percent global rise in sales of cars and light vehicles in the first half. Another casualty was Japan's Toyota Motor , which saw sales down 25.8 percent in June, ACEA's data showed. The auto maker, like its peers, is recovering from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan which disrupted the global auto industry.
By contrast, South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors both performed well, with increases of 9.1 percent and 14.1 percent respectively in the region in June. Meanwhile, VDA said US sales of German-brand light vehicles rose 22 percent in June, echoing growth in Brazil, which was little dampened by the hike in the country's central bank interest rate. Sales in Brazil rose 16 percent and in China more than 9 percent, the association said.
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