EU passenger car sales fall 76% in April

LONDON (ICIS)–EU passenger car sales fell 76.3% year on year in April, the sharpest fall since records began, as the automotive industry suffered the lockdowns across the 27-country bloc, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday.

The number of new cars sold during the month fell to 270,682, compared with 1.14m during April 2019, with showrooms closed across much of the region, with double-digit declines in demand in every member state.

Of the largest EU markets, Spain and Italy saw the sharpest falls, with registrations falling 96.5% and 97.6% respectively year on year, the sharpest falls in the union and on a par with the 97.3% fall in UK automotive sales during the month, to the lowest levels since 1946.

Germany posted a substantial but more modest decline, with registrations falling 61.1%, while French auto sales fell 88.8%.

Despite the fall in demand in Germany, consumers in the country still purchased 120,840 new vehicles during the month, over 28 times the sales seen in Italy and Spain.

EU auto sales fell by a total of 38.5% in the first four months of 2020, as weak demand amid economic slowness at the start of the year gave way to what may shape up to be the worst crisis for the region in decades.

Italy, Spain and France posted the sharpest declines for the first four months of the year, dropping 50.7%, 48.9% and 48% year on year.

ACEA did not give projections for full-year sales, but the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has projected that sales in the country would fall this year to the lowest levels since 1992.

Along with the aerospace industry, the automotive sector has been one of the worst-hit by the pandemic, with production and sales rooms shutdowns and population lockdowns stifling sales.

Demand is rebounding but slowly, even after governments moved to start easing measures.

The sector is a key end market for many large chemicals firms, with Germany’s BASF still deriving about a fifth of its sales from the sector.

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Ratings agency Moody’s projected this month that average earnings for chemicals firms in Europe and North America would fall by 20% in 2020, with firms most exposed to commodity chemicals and the automotive sector seen as among the most vulnerable to the deepest falls.

Front page picture: Hundreds of unsold cars in Togliatti, Russia
Source: Mstyslav Chernov/AP/Shutterstock