European Car Sales Drop by 15.7% in August

The U.S. auto industry isn’t the only one feeling the economic crunch as demand for new cars in Europe decreased by 7.3% in July and 15.7% in August, reflecting the general deterioration in consumer confidence and the ongoing effects of continuing high gas prices. According to the data provided by European car manufacturers, August sales in Western Europe fell 16.5%, with only Portugal showing growth (+4.8%). Ireland (-41.6%) and Spain (-41.3%) registered the steepest downturn. Registrations fell by 26.4% in Italy, 18.6% in the UK, 10.4% in Germany and 7.1% in France. -Continued

As for the EU member states, demand for new cars dropped by 9.3%. Registrations remained stable in the Czech Republic (+0.5%) and Poland (-0.9%) while declining by 23.3% in Hungary and by 9.0% in Romania.

Since the beginning of the year, new car registrations have declined in Europe by 3.9% compared to the same period in 2007. In particular, new registrations dropped 4.4% in Western Europe, with a decrease in Spain (-21.1%), Italy (-12.0%) and the UK (-3.8%) overshadowing growth in France (+2.9%) and Germany (+1.7%). In the new EU member states, sales were up 1.8%, reflecting growth in Poland (+9.1%) and the Czech Republic (+8.2%) while Hungary (-4.9%) and Romania (-3.5%) were on a downward trend.