European Car Market Shrinks 3% In May

The European passenger car market shrank 3% at an annualized pace in May, reversing from a strong hike in the prior month, an industry group report showed on Thursday.

New passenger car registrations in the EU decreased to a three-month low of 911.697 units in May, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said.

Three out of four major EU markets posted a decline in car sales last month, Italy (down 6.6%), Germany (down 4.3%), and France (down 2.9%) while Spain saw a modest annual growth of 3.4% in May.

The market share of battery-electric cars in the EU dropped to 12.5%, with its sales hitting 114,308 units, falling 12% from a year earlier.

New EU registrations of hybrid-electric cars, on the other hand, jumped 16.2% year-on-year to over 272,568 million units in May

Cumulative figure

In January-May, the EU car market grew 4.6% from last year to 4.6 million units in sales.

The bloc's largest markets all showed a similar performance with Spain (6.8%), Germany (5.2%), France (4.9%), and Italy (3.4%) recording growth so far this year. -