New car sales in Europe slipped 0.3 percent in January on weakness in all the major markets but Germany, the ACEA European automakers' association said on Friday. Registrations of new passenger cars in Europe - comprising the EU members except Cyprus and Malta, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland - totalled 1,308,761 in January.
The decline was driven by 1.6-percent fall over one year in the 15 oldest members of the European Union while fast growing new member states continued to see a buying spree with an increase of 20.1 percent. "From the five major markets in western Europe, only Germany registered more cars than last year, with a 10.5 percent increase," ACEA said in a statement.
While German sales surged ahead, new British registrations fell by 2.1 percent, French by 5.6 percent, Italian by 7.3 percent and Spanish by 12.7 percent. Among the major brands, Europe's biggest carmaker the Volkswagen group saw its sales edge up 0.6 percent in January while the second biggest automaker, the PSA group, saw its sales slump 3.2 percent. Following them, the Ford group saw sales of its new cars fall 3.2 percent in January while the GM group's sales plunged 8.1 percent. Sales of new Renaults rose 0.4 percent while Fiat sales eased 0.7 percent.