New passenger car registrations in Europe

The number of new car registrations in the European Union slumped by around 4.6 percent between January and December 2022. Denmark witnessed the most significant contraction in the year 2022. Car sales in Denmark dipped by 20 percent year-on-year.

Europe's large auto markets rebound

Germany, Europe's largest passenger vehicle market, witnessed an upward trend. Germany's car sales in December 2022 increased by about 38 percent year-on-year as some 314,300 cars were sold here.

New car sales jump in 2021

Registrations were down in the first months of 2020 due to consumer uncertainty, a weakening economy, and changes in tax rates which resulted in higher than usual sales in previous months. However, the drop in registrations strongly correlates with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. The second quarter of 2021 showed a notable improvement on the previous year's levels, with a strong sales volume. However, the market declined in the second half of the year, most likely as a result of lower production levels. Much of the low production output can be attributed to a shortage of microchips.

Change in new passenger car registrations in European markets from June 2020 to June 2022 (change over previous year)

Characteristic	EFTA	EU-27	UK	Total*
Dec 2022	41.8%	12.8%	18.3%	14.8%
Sep 2022	-5.2%	9.6%	4.6%	7.9%
Jun 2022	-19.8%	-15.4%	-24.3%	-16.8%
Mar 2022	-5.1%	-20.5%	-14.3%	-18.8%
Dec 2021	-8.9%	-22.8%	-18.2%	-21.7%
Sep 2021	2.1%	-23.1%	-34.4%	-25.2%
Jun 2021	31.3%	10.4%	28%	13.3%
Jan 2021	-10.5%	-24%	-39.5%	-25.7%
Oct 2020	-6.9%	-7.8%	-1.6%	-7.1%
Jul 2020	-5.1%	-5.7%	11.3%	-3.7%
Apr 2020	-58.2%	-76.3%	-97.3%	-78.3%
Jan 20	-5.6%	-7.5%	-7.3%	-7.4%

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Release date

January 2023

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Region

Europe

Survey time period

Jan 2020 through December 2022

Supplementary notes

* Total includes EFTA, EU-27, and the United Kingdom
EFTA markets include Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.
The figures prior to 2022 were taken from previous editions of the publication.
Some months needed to be excluded because the year-on-year increases were off the scale.
All values are estimates; figures for Malta unavailable.

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